Community Arts

Overall, we felt like our artistic goals were met. In three days, 27 women came together to learn an instrument, form a band, see performances of local musicians, take workshops on recording and gear, and play a showcase. Every woman that attended Ladies Rock Camp performed in the final showcase and 100% of participants reported back that their confidence in playing in a band and playing with others increased either a lot (rated 4 out of 5) or a ton (rated 5 out of 5). Although we did not reach our goal of having 36 participants, we still increased our participants from 21 in 2015 to 27 this year. Additionally, we increased the number of bands formed from 4 in 2015 to 6 this year. We also increased the amount of female instructors from last year. In 2015, we had 8 folks who worked all-day for the weekend and 4 folks who worked during instrument class only. This year, we changed all staff to a full-day position and we had 14 staff instructors. This helped us create a great student to teacher ratio (around 3:1) which helped the students increase their knowledge on their instrument and on songwriting. We also vamped up our curriculum and had written out precise goals for each instrument class and band rehearsal. Because of this, the teachers were able to create an environment to help the students learn in the fast time of three days. We were also able to create a very welcoming, safe and empowering environment which is something that the participants noted and applauded. 100% of participants indicated that they would come to this camp again as well as recommend it to others. We also have some areas of improvement for next year. We got a lot of feedback from participants stating that they would like more instrument instruction time. So, we are going to offer the options for campers to sign up for private instruction before and after camp on Saturday and before camp on Sunday. That will give them more time to hone in their instrument skills at a more intimate level with the instructor. Also, there were a few moments where campers’ attitudes were tricky for teachers to navigate. For example, we had a situation where a student was getting frustrated in her band because she had a more advanced skill level then the rest of her band. The teachers felt like they didn’t know how best to handle the situation and so they ignored a lot of her behavior. Next year, we plan to have teachers role play different scenarios that might come up during camp at our teacher training. This will help the teachers practice different conflict resolution methods. Overall, we felt like we provided an outstanding experience for our participants. 100% of participants noted that they would continue playing music as a result of this camp. In fact, one the bands that was formed at camp, Hot Flash, has continued playing as a band together. And, many other participants have continued on with private instruction from the teachers they worked with at camp. We felt like we were very successful in reaching our intended community. We had initially intended to reach 36 participants with the thought that approximately 50% of participants would be between the ages of 40-55, 35% would identify as LGBTQIA and 30% would have never played their instrument before. We ended up serving 27 participants. Although we had less sign ups than we expected, we still grew from last year. Out of those participants, 75% of them were between the ages of 40-55. We think this is fantastic because there are very few programs dedicated to teaching arts to women of this age group-- and no music programs that we know of that do this. Also, 42% of program participants identified as LGBTQIA which means our outreach to that community was well worth it. 100% of participants reported that the camp felt safe for LGTBQIA folks so are excited to continue work in the LGBTQIA community as an artistic resource and outlet. Our teachers were also a diverse community. Approximately 45% of teachers identify as LBTQIA. Additionally they had the age range of 22-57. One area of improvement we have for this program is to create more racial and ethnic diversity. Only 8% of our teachers and 8% of our students identified as a race/ethnicity other than white/Caucasian. We are in the process of creating a diversity and inclusion committee on our board to discuss this issue and create strategies to be more accessible to communities of color. Overall, we felt like we did a great job at making this program open to all participants. No participant was turned away due to an inability to pay and 20% of participants received financial aid and/or sliding fee. Additionally, we made the program open to participants of all instrumental ability. About 42% of participants reported that they had never played their instrument before participating in camp. Many of these folks were able to borrow an instrument after camp as well, so their learning can be continued. 27 women attended camp and each participant wrote at least one song that they performed at the final showcase. 42% of these participants had never played their instrument before camp, 39% had some instrument experience (6 months-2 years) and 19% had a lot of experience (3+ years) on their instrument. 100% of participants reported that they would participate in this program again.