Ah, December: Month #12 is thick with holiday feasting and fasting alike. It is the season fit for charitable concerts, too.
In Boise, December 18th through the 21st was packed with such fundraisers.
On Thursday the 18th, three bands joined up with Boise States University’s Phi Alpha Theta Honors Society to support the Idaho Black History Museum.
Then, sixteen local bands made two nights of big at the Visual Arts Collective on Friday and Saturday for the Bah Humbug Music Festival. Jeremy Jensen arranged this fantastic event to support Sam Stimpert and Anneliesa Balk-Stimpert’s unique art space in Garden City, where attendance has been sadly low since the economic plunge.
Then the Egyptian rang loud to a sold-out house on Sunday for the 3rd Annual
Xtreme Holiday Xtravaganza. Curtis Stigers co-produced and co-hosted this variety show and benefit for Boise’s Interfaith Sanctuary for the homeless. Arts and humanity love company as much as misery does. Human need is perfect reason to make art. Besides, it can be easier to drop a few bucks on a cover charge and some merchandise than say goodbye to a few dimes going into a red Salvation Army pail outside Albertson's. Making art does not necessarily require all that much, either. A band doesn’t necessarily need high quality speakers to make music, an actor doesn’t need a stage to tell a story and a painter doesn’t need a gallery. Art does need a little humanity, though, and an audience. Since nonprofit organizations have a ready cause and are supportive by nature, they can make good teams with artists and musicians, who can never have enough purpose, drive or projects. And let’s not forget how much the benefits help the organizations, their cause, and the individuals who depend on them.
Take the Idaho Black History Museum, the only museum of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Though it has the invaluable mission “to build bridges between cultures to explore issues that affect Americans of all cultures and ethnicities,” it somehow goes relatively unnoticed, unvisited and underappreciated. Open only by appointment, it is overshadowed by its neighbors, the Boise Art Museum and Idaho History Museum. Christine Acosta organized the benefit show at Neurolux with the intent to “help the Idaho Black History Museum be as accessible, well-staffed and, most of all, well-preserved for many future generations."
Some ticket sales from the Neurolux Benefit went directly to the museum, as well as merchandise sales from local band The Universal. Not to mention all the donated commitment, energy and talent from In The Shadow Of The Mountain, Kris Doty and Le Fleur. Beyond Le Fleur’s set, their drummer Bryan Hallowell also donated a promotional poster and flyer design for the event, with graphics and title inspired by the museum’s permanent collection, Invisible Idahoans. And of course, owner Alan Ireland gave up a Friday night at Neurolux, which Acosta appreciates too.
These musicians are working for free, essentially, and will do so because these are causes worth fighting for. Artists rarely pursue the most profitable endeavors anyway, but by giving up their work, they are fighting in their own way to save things that could be wiped out otherwise. Acosta notes, “It [Idaho Black History Museum] is just going to fade away…and then what’s going to happen? [Young artists] have some need to express themselves, dire need. Why not do it for somebody else?...If we don’t, who will? The government won’t. Rich people won’t.” After all, the people who have the least to give will often sacrifice the most. Musicians may not eat like kings or live comfortably every day, but thanks to all their work throughout one little weekend, three incredible associations might just have gotten enough recognition and support to get back on their feet.
Though we have passed the holidays and reached the New Year, these organizations and their causes still need attention. Just because a charitable concert or a donation may not seem en vogue in January, a remarkable museum is still overlooked, an extraordinary arts space is still taken for granted, individuals are still homeless and families are still hungry.
Sharing, appreciation and humanity count in bigger ways than a tax write-off—and really isn’t torture, either. Take the kids for a field trip at the Idaho Black History Museum and learn something new, take your date to a show at the Visual Arts Collective or bring a group of friends to volunteer at the Interfaith Sanctuary. Enjoy yourself and spread some love at the same time. And whenever you meet one of these artists who donate their work or see one of these bands play a set for free, take some time to thank them for caring.
Here are a few you can cheer on (and buy a CD from, if possible):
In the Shadow Of The Mountain
Kris Doty
AK-47
Le Fleur
ATTN
La Knots
Bonefish Sam
The Very Most
Centaral City Music Company
Idle Chatter
Floomdoorm
Low-Fi
Vonny Cal
Sleepy Seeds
Spondee
With Child
A Seasonal Disguise
How's Your Family?
Curtis Stigers
The Frim Fram Four
John Hansen
Thomas Paul
Rebecca Scott
The Rockafellas
Bindy Bowler
Ned Evett
The Divas of Boise
Steve Fulton
Dale Keys
The Moody Jews
The Darkwood Consort
Johnny Shoes Bill
Coffey Big Band
