NEW ORLEANS (press release) – The Ella Project is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $ 25,000. This grant will support The Ella Project’s continued pro bono legal services to artists and Crescendo, The Ella Project’s multi week music business intensive workshop. In total, the NEA will award 958 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $27.1 million that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.
“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to The Ella Project, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”
“Ensuring access to justice for all artists of Louisiana, regardless of their ability to pay, is crucial to The Ella Project’s mission,” says Co-Founder Gene Meneray. “Likewise, our Crescendo program, led by Lou Hill and Bri Whetstone, has become a cornerstone service of Ella, and we’re excited to continue to be able to offer this program at no charge to the musicians of Louisiana.
ABOUT THESE PROJECTS
The Ella Project hosts pro bono legal services for low to moderate income artists and musicians. Supervised by project co-founder Ashlye Keaton and her team of Tulane Law students, The Ella Project presents all day weekly legal clinics by appointment and provides assistance from concept to completion in issues of copyright, trademark, business formation, contract preparation, negotiation and review, licensing, estate planning, and other entertainment law matters.
Designed and taught by musician and entrepreneur Lou Hill and attorney Bri Whetstone, Crescendo is a series of seven free workshops targeting independent musicians held on successive weeks in Fall 2024. Sessions cover topics including copyright, licensing your music, collecting royalties, touring, festival gigs, album releases, and new technologies changing the music economy. There is no fee to attend Crescendo sessions, and though each session builds upon the last and artists are encouraged to sign up for the entire series, artists may pick and choose which sessions they would like to attend.
