Research Recap: Levitt venues as gathering places for friends and families

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Across the country, people are getting ready to pack their suitcases and hop on a plane, train or automobile to spend time with friends and family and enjoy a holiday meal with one another. Levitt Foundation Executive Director Sharon Yazowski has beat the Thanksgiving travel rush and is already on the road to Grand Rapids, Mich., where she’ll present takeaways from Levitt’s recently published white paper tomorrow at the 2017 ARNOVA conference—a convening of scholars, teachers, and practitioners from across the country who’re interested in research on nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and civil society. Continue reading →

Thanks for sharing your #musicmoves!

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All through the summer and fall, Levitteers filled our live #musicmoves feed with photos and videos capturing the fun and excitement of free concerts all over the country! Whether you were showing off your dance moves, grooving along to the awesome musicians on stage, or simply kicking back with friends and family, it’s been a treat to see how live music invigorated your lives and your communities. Watch our highlights video above, and check out the #musicmoves contest winners who won iTunes gift cards this year below!

Thank you for making the Levitt AMP Music Series so memorable this year! We’re already looking forward to 2018 and seeing more of your #musicmoves.

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Vote NOW to Levitt AMP Your City in 2018!

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Voting for the 2018 Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards is now officially open! Each year, the Levitt Foundation awards $25K matching grants to up to 15 nonprofits serving small to mid-sized towns and cities across the country. Since all Levitt projects are community-driven, each year the Top 25 Levitt AMP finalists are chosen through online, public voting, open to all.

Vote for your favorite Levitt AMP proposals (up to 5 per person!) and you can help decide which towns and cities will be one step closer to receiving a Levitt AMP grant to present their own Levitt AMP Music Series. With 150 free concerts around the country (10 in each community), the series will inject new life into underused public spaces across America. Vote now! Voting ends November 20, 5PM PST. Spread the word!

Research Recap: Why moving freely in public spaces matters

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Levitt Foundation Executive Director Sharon Yazowski presenting at the 2017 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference.

Yesterday, Levitt Foundation Executive Director Sharon Yazowski was out in the field with Slover Linett Audience Research President Sarah Lee, presenting an interactive session at the 2017 Grantmakers Makers in the Arts Conference in Detroit. Together they demystified the process of impact assessment, sharing experiences from Levitt’s own journey into the creation of a multi-year impact study with Slover Linett and giving professionals in the grantmaking community the tools and knowledge they need to embark on their own assessment journeys.

Inspired by yesterday afternoon’s presentation, today we’re releasing the fourth installment of our “Research Recap” blog series, featuring posts that highlight a particular finding from our recently published impact study. With tomorrow being Halloween—an evening where costume-clad celebrators take over sidewalks (some of the most common public spaces out there)—we’re focusing on the value of spaces where people of all ages can move around freely.

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Levitt loves…’Music Cities!’

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Pictured above: Levitt’s Sharon Yazowski and Vanessa Silberman with Matt Kowal and Lisa Gedgaudas of Denver Arts and Venues in front of the Stax Museum of American Soul in Memphis, Tenn.

Today, Executive Director Sharon Yazowski and Senior Director of Communications & Strategic Initiatives Vanessa Silberman are representing the Levitt Foundation at the 2017 Music Cities Convention in Memphis, Tenn. (one of our nation’s great ‘music cities’!). They’ll be joined by local Levitt Shell Executive Director Anne Pitts and Levitt Pavilion Denver Executive Director Chris Zacher—who’ll be presenting at the conference. Continue reading →

Paul Thorn and Blind Boys of Alabama to headline 2018 Levitt National Tour

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Next summer, Southern raconteur Paul Thorn and his six-piece band will team up with five-time GRAMMY-winning Gospel legend, Blind Boys of Alabama, for a one-of-a-kind musical collaboration as headliners of the 2018 Levitt National Tour. Levitt audiences across the country will experience these exhilarating, soulful shows blending old-school gospel with rock, blues and country.

Taking place next June and July, the 2018 Levitt National Tour will stop in seven cities including Arlington, Texas; Bethlehem, Pa.; Dayton, Ohio; Denver; Los Angeles; Memphis; and Sioux Falls, S.D. (the future home of Levitt Shell Sioux Falls). The Tour follows on the heels of the 2017 Levitt National Tour, which featured Gulf Coast Soul sensation The Suffers, and previous Levitt National Tours featuring genre-busting violin outfit Black Violin (2015) and the world-music fusion of Playing For Change (2014).

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Colorful connections—the power of public art at Levitt concerts

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  • "The Bridge" by Elena Colombo (2011); SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus, home to Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks (Bethlehem, PA)

Sounds, colors and people fill a Levitt lawn, infusing a palpable energy into an underused public space. More and more, public art—whether it’s a temporary installation, a permanent mural, or an interactive sculpture, to name a few—is becoming part of the Levitt experience across the country. Below are some of the exciting ways Levitt communities have embraced the multidimensional power of the arts in public spaces. Continue reading →

Levitt loves…memorable moments!

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Levitt_loves_memorable_momentsThink back to a formative memory. Do you envision a full event from start to finish, or a few meaningful moments? Chances are, there are particular moments that stick with you over time, as explained in the newly-released book The Power of Moments, by Stanford Business School professor Chip Heath and his brother, Dan Heath, senior fellow at Duke University’s CASE Center. Last month, a couple of us had the opportunity to hear Dan deliver a stirring keynote at the annual Communications Network Conference in Miami—where among other things, he discussed what makes a moment memorable. Continue reading →

Spotlight Series: Whiskey Shivers

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The Levitt AMP Middlesboro Music Series ends on a high note with critically acclaimed bluegrass darlings Whiskey Shivers, playing a FREE show tomorrow at 6PM! They’ve dazzled Levitt audiences in Denver (July 2017), Los Angeles (July 2014) and Arlington (September 2014) with their brisk energy and virtuosic folk spirit. Their theatrical, interactive performances have captured the attention of publications like NPR, The Washington Post and Rolling Stone. Middlesboro, mark your calendars because you don’t want to miss this one!

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