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Without You…
The Un_Compromised Music & Arts will fade away.

With your help… 
They can thrive.

AFA is holding a series of Fundraisers to ensure that the Vision Festival will continue & Un_Compromised arts will be supported !

The May 8 Fundraising Party was great - but we still have a ways to go!

For 18 years Arts for Art has presented the successful world-class Vision Festival as well as other less visible but equally important initiatives.  Yet AFA is struggling with a staff too small to effectively move forward.

AFA has made a difference. And now, we are in an important renewal phase as we invite younger musicians to become AFA’s new artistic leaders and curators.

Next Year AFA would like to bring you…

• Vision Festival 19

• A group of younger artists to carry the Vision forward…

• Move THE UNDER_LINE forward with special Salon multi-arts performances that will build bridges within the music and arts communities and make it available to a younger audience

• Begin to implement “Grow It Local” to bring music & art directly to the community

• Continue our education intiatives to make sure that this complex music is available to a new generation

• Special events and festivals at Clemente

Arts For Art is committed to providing broad access to high-quality original creative music and multidisciplinary art. As a restult, AFA has developed major programming initiatives that have significantly advanced its mission to bring greater exposure to both established and emerging artists and help develop the next generation of artists.

Right Now!  Arts for Art is organizing a campaign to build a consensus to create a new Music Venue, The Under_Line in he undeveloped, underground city owned facility.  This location would make a great viable venue for un-compromised music.

How We Do It

The breadth of AFA productions has grown exponentially over the last seventeen years. While the Vision Festival remains at the center of our efforts and has become a jazz world institution, we strive to offer innovative programming all year round.

The Vision Festival (17 years running)

The Vision Festival trumpets the finest lineup of jazz musicians each year, the shared esthetic a genius exploration into the new territories of sound. Creative and adventurous, this event  hosts the crowned improvisers of our time, each drawing from their own pool of inspiration, whether it be African, Middle Eastern or Asian rhythms, classical music or old-school bebop.  Over the years, it has become a community, a shared space, an occurrence that gathers connoisseurs of the music, those who believe that the possibilities of artistic creativity are boundless, empowering and beautiful.
Steve Psyllos, NY Press

Noteworthy Benefits of Vision Festival

A Lifetime of Achievement - Each year, AFA dedicates an evening to honor the achievements of one living artist whose music has inspired and influenced all of us.

Emerging Artists - AFA brings together the work of multiple generations so that our audience can hear the continuum of sound. So while the Vision Festival’s primary focus is on creative achievements by mid-career artists and legends in the music, we make sure that audiences hear the important new sounds of the younger emerging artists.

Vision Festival Outreach Programs - Music educators who have participated in AFA’s T.I.M.E., are able to bring their students to share their original music in performance at the festival.

VF @ Campos - Seizing an opportunity to share creative music with an underserved population, AFA brings free Vision Festival performance & workshops to NYCHA’s Campos Plaza Housing Development.

Advocacy - The festival includes talks that bring attention to issues relevant to the art community.

Evolving Music / Evolving Voice Series (8 years running)

AFA’s showcase for original creative music, the series make available three shows of original music each week, exposing artists and audiences to a range of creative possibilities being explored today. Each month, we dedicate an evening program to honor great artists who are no longer with us and in this way we are able to share our history and legacy. To strengthen the legacy of the music, we have put together an intergenerational Sound band. In general, we are committed to building content and context for the art we present. We also feature the Creative Sounds of Dissension to give time and space to express our concerns for the world we share.

Autumn: In Gardens Series (5 years running)

AFA takes a direct approach to connecting innovative art to communities. These FREE In Garden shows take place in community gardens, making music available to students, parents, fans, garden members and passer-bys.

Vision Collaboration Nights (8 years running)

AFA’s Vision Collaborations Festival has been encouraging and supporting creative growth by giving opportunities for dance/ creative jazz / visual art to develop work in collaboration.

Education / Outreach Program (6 years running)

AFA is organizing an after-school music & dance program called Music Is Mine / Dance Is Me. Building upon the success of workshops that took place in June 2010 at Campos Plaza, this pilot program brings complex art into a low-income neighborhood.
AFA continues to develop Teaching Improvised Music Effectively (T.I.M.E.) to bring together music teachers to develop curriculum for teaching innovative music.

AFA's commitment to Advocacy (17 years running)

Since the first Vision Festival, AFA has maintained a commitment to social justice and innovative art. In 2008 we began holding artist meetings to address the creative, political, and practical concerns of artists through advocacy and action utilizing: Town Hall Meetings / Panel discussions / Salons. AFA has continued to hold meetings, salons and panels to provide ways for artists to identify common problems, find solutions and network. In this way AFA strengthens NY’s innovative community.

Special Events

AFA is responsive to what is happening around us. In response to 9/11 - in 2001, 2002 and this year on September 11, 2011, AFA produced From The Ashes. In November, 2009 we presented a multi-arts marathon, 28 Hours.

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