Women's Audio Mission

Women’s Audio Mission advances girls, women, and gender-diverse people in the fields of music production, music performance, and the recording arts. Each year the organization provides more than 4,000 people with classes, workshops, performances, conferences, and career development and placement programs. A majority of the people it works with are girls aged 11 through 18, most of whom are people of color, low-income, and have few opportunities to participate in rigorous creative and digital media production training outside of Women’s Audio Mission. The organization also provides a low-cost, high-quality recording environment for independent artists and classes for adults. Support for Women’s Audio Mission aligns with the Performing Arts Program’s Youth strategy and Program Delivery substrategy.

178. Women’s Audio Mission is dedicated to the advancement of women and girls in music production and the recording arts, a field in which women are critically underrepresented (less than 5 percent). Founded in San Francisco in 2003, Women’s Audio Mission provides free and low-cost recording-arts training to more than 650 girls and women each year in the world’s only professional recording studio run entirely by women. The organization has recorded acclaimed artists like the Kronos Quartet and author Salman Rushdie, but focuses on recording residencies for underserved traditional artists from diverse cultures in the Bay Area. In addition, Women’s Audio Mission developed and maintains an online recording-arts training library and curriculum that serves more than 6,500 students in 127 countries. With Hewlett Foundation funding, the organization plans to expand its classroom offerings, invest in further board development, and pursue a capital campaign to acquire a larger physical space for its work.