An arts education is not enrichment. It is training.
Media arts training for underserved teens on Chicago’s South Side since 2012.
What our students make is their own: a platform to express the concerns of their community, in their own words. TechKno Academy is the teaching arm. More than 500 students since we started, taught by working music producers, recording artists, film directors, audio engineers and videographers. The purpose is plain: to open careers in music and film production to young people who would not otherwise get near them.
The MEMa Studio will carry that same training to schools and other locations across the community: a professional recording and production facility built into a 53-foot trailer. It is in development now, with a campaign underway to build it.
Have a look around. Join us in this mission.
Some of them arrive certain that nobody is paying attention. We are.
The people teaching are working music producers, engineers, film directors and videographers. They are also mentors, and they keep coming back. For some of our students, that is the part they have not had.
A studio turns out to be a good room for this. The work asks a young person what they have to say, then hands them the same tools the industry uses to say it with. What comes out is usually about their own street, their own family, their own week. It is theirs, it is finished, and other people sit down and watch it.
Nobody should promise that ten weeks changes a life. Research from the Department of Justice on arts-based programs for young people reports gains in academic achievement and in relationships with peers and adults. What we will claim is narrower and we are sure of it: showing up matters, and a room where somebody is paying attention is worth building.
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Media arts training for teens in film, music, and sound. Since 2012, more than 500 students, running in schools today.
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A professional recording and production studio inside a 53-foot trailer, in development now, built to bring the programs to schools anywhere.
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About
Teaching in Chicago since 2012. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our Executive Summary and Company Profile lay out the mission, the programs, and the campaign in full.
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The Team
Music producers, recording artists, film directors, audio engineers, and videographers, with decades of work across music, film, broadcast lighting, stage management, and post-production. Every one of them here to pay forward the opportunities they were given.
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Contact
Interested in volunteering, joining the team, or bringing a program to your school? We would like to hear from you.
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Support the Build
The MEMa Studio is funded through corporate sponsorship, major gifts, and foundation grants. Every dollar raised is a mile driven.