The Barnett "Symposium" Speaker series presents The Magic is in the Middle: Philanthropy and the Future of Music in American Cities with Elizabeth Cawein. As the global pandemic laid bare the flaws in our arts economy, it also made clear the opportunities that exist to transform the way we think – and the way we invest – in the future. With music particularly, there is an entrenched divide between so-called “commercial” music and musicians and the nonprofit music ecosystem – dismantling it and understanding the social and cultural value of these artists will be critical to the vitality of our cities post-COVID.
Elizabeth Cawein is a music advocate and strategist. She is the founder and executive director of Music Export Memphis, a nonprofit export office for Memphis music that creates opportunities for musicians and drives economic development through music and culture. She leads brand experience work for Memphis Brand, has worked in music publicity and strategy since 2011 through her own boutique agency, Signal Flow PR, and spent two years leading the expansion of international music policy consultancy Sound Diplomacy into the United States. Elizabeth is an adjunct professor at Rhodes College, teaching Music Urbanism, a course she developed for the Mike Curb Institute for Music. In 2015 she was honored by the British Council at its inaugural Education UK Alumni Awards, celebrating outstanding U.S. alumni of British institutions, and in 2020 she was named to Memphis Business Journal's 40<40. Elizabeth is dedicated to the belief that smart cities are music cities – she has spoken on the topic at Music Cities Convention, SXSW, AmericanaFest, Canadian Music Week, Folk Alliance, and Texas Sounds and Cities (keynote), and her TED Talk on the subject has 1.4 million views and climbing.
Register to attend Elizabeth Cawein's virtual presentation at this link.
If you require an accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in this event, please contact Ketal Patel at patel.648@buckeyemail.osu.edu. Requests made by (enter date, usually 2 weeks in advance) will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
