Staying low and lean, a new arts organization aims to cut through the fog of non-profit arts funding.
The New and Improvised Music Foundation of Kansas City will encourage and facilitate new composition and music projects.
The foundation, a 501 (c)(3) corporation, is the brain child of musician and composer Brad Cox, whose many roles in the artistic community include co-artistic director of Owen/Cox Dance, leader of the People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, and all around creative leader.
In a recent phone interview, Cox discussed the role the organization will play as “a fiscal sponsor or umbrella for discrete projects that have a beginning and an end.”
For the average artist, tackling the paperwork required and paying fees to gain tax-exempt nonprofit status from the IRS is an unsurmountable obstacle, especially on a project-by-project basis. The New and Improvised Music Foundation will sponsor projects by individual musicians and small groups who do not have 501 (c)(3)status.
“There aren’t too many [funding] opportunities [for the] individual artist without having 501 (c)(3) status.” Cox said. ”There are a whole bunch of grants that all of a sudden open up, once you have it.”
Additionally, having this sponsorship allows artists to offer tax-deductible status to gifts from individual donors.
There are other organizations that serve a similar purpose, such as Fractured Atlas or the Folk Alliance, but they take a percentage of the funds the artist has raised or require a fee to join. They also provide services such as education or accounting, or serve as fundraising entities of their own.
With the New and Improvised Music Foundation, all fundraising is the responsibility of the artist and all monies earned stay with the project. There is an approval process, with the foundation’s board (currently three people), giving the thumbs up or down to projects, but this streamlined organization presently has no plans to offer any extra services.
“The whole idea is that it would be a pretty lean and simple organization, driven purely by the musicians,” Cox said.
In December, Cox submitted the articles of incorporation to the state of Missouri. The various fees, rounding out to about $425, were raised during the People’s Liberation Big Band’s last recordBar concert, an informal session where Cox introduced the organization and then pointed out a bucket on the front of the stage. He then instructed the band to play his arrangement of Moonlight Serenade, which diabolically recycles the saccharine melody ad infinitum, effectively holding the show and audience captive until the bucket seemed full enough. The crowd gave generously and good-naturedly of their dollar bills, earning the fledgling organization the requisite funds.
It’s a start—simple, direct and musically-driven—that exemplifies the New and Improvised Music Foundation of Kansas City’s hopes to have a big impact on the artistic output of area musicians.
Above: In December, Brad Cox, founder of the New and Improved Music Foundation, conducted The People’s Liberation Big Band’s final concert with singer Shay Estes at the recordBar. Audience members filled the donation bucket at the front of the stage to help pay the new foundation’s state incorporation fees. Photo by Larry Koptinik.
