In celebration of Phish’s four-show run at Madison Square Garden this weekend, the all-volunteer Mockingbird Foundation has announced an unsolicited $1,000 Tour Grant to the music program at Sunset Park High School in Brooklyn.
Sunset Park, where 92% students are minority and 85% are economically disadvantaged, is the only NYU Partnership high school in Brooklyn. It’s also right down the street from a mass shooting that happened less than two weeks ago.
The grant is part of a long-standing effort to help bring music from the Phish community to the local communities Phish touches, an effort that now totals $184,000, which is over 9% of all disbursements made by the Foundation.
The Mockingbird Foundation is an all-volunteer, fan-founded and -managed 501c3 supporting music education for children. It is the leading provider of historical information about Phish and its music, having cultivated intellectual property through phish.net since 1994. A leading grantmaker in music education for children, the Foundation has now made 535 grants in all 50 states, totaling more than $1.9M. Funds for grants are generated through donations from a loyal base of fans, as well as through books, recordings, artwork, merchandise, and special events, including the recent Mockingbird Sessions, celebrating our 25th anniversary. The Foundation has been operated entirely by volunteer fans of the band, without any salaries or paid staff, since its inception in 1996.