Afropunk at Art Sanctuary

How Can You Get Involved?

SPONSORS

We are seeking sponsors interested in supporting AfroPunk at Art Sanctuary and receiving a 501(c)3 tax credit from Art Sanctuary.

Become a part of History, and sponsor the first event of its kind in the Louisville Region.

Sponsors will enable us to:

• Appropriately compensate our musical artists for their skill, talent and for touring groups, transportation
• Afford us the ability to have a panel discussion including the Director of AfroPunk, James Spooner
• Effectively market our event
• Support the arts and simultaneously expand minds in Louisville, KY

With your donation of $1,000 or greater, you can assist us in achieving these goals as well as allow us to tactfully advertise your business as a sponsor of our event.

• We will include your logo on all printed advertisements, and on all images we create, and include in our press releases
• Your logo and message on a Thank You presentation shown before and after the film, and during the Panel discussion
• We also suggest creating AfroPunk attendee specials for your business. We can distribute them as coupons or show your special during the Thank You presentation loop:
  • IE: Mention AfroPunk at our coffee shop for ½ off Medium Lattees until April 30^th!

If you would prefer to donate products or services to our event, we are also seeking:

• Lodging Sponsors to assist with housing for our traveling performers
• Restaurant Sponsors interested in providing catering to our paying, ticketed guests
• Printing Sponsors to help us achieve our advertising goals of reaching potential attendees and spreading the word throughout the region. Vinyl Banner with AfroPunk at Art Sanctuary logo, and Sponsor’s logos, 11x17” color posters, 5x7” color handbills, day-of-event handouts with event schedule
• Audio Visual Sponsors to provide adequate audio equipment for musicians and the film, ie PA System, Microphones, DJ equipment etc, and appropriate video presentation equipment for the film, ie projector, DVD Player, large movie screen.

In exchange for your donation of any size to this event run at a location run by a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Art Sanctuary, you/your business will receive a tax credit. If you are able to commit to a sizable donation you are entitled to your tax credit, as well as advertisement before and after the film.

Tentative Event Details

EVENT DETAILS

Guests will pay a ticket price, and this ticket will give them access to a Saturday Evening of entertainment including:

- A Screening of the Afropunk film

- A panel discussion which will include guests we are presently approaching: James Spooner, director of Afropunk, Professors from the African American studies and Modern Music departments of University of Louisville.

- Spirits and Beverages sold by Art Sanctuary

- 4-6 Rock Bands, both from the Louisville, KY area as well as national touring acts

- Visual Art created specifically for the event by artists local to the Louisville area

Our Advertising & Marketing Plan

Press release submissions regarding AfroPunk at Art Sanctuary will be delivered to the following media outlets:

• ABC
• NBC
• CBS
• FOX
• The Courier Journal
• Velocity
• LEO
• NPR

To truly create a Regional Event we will also reach out to the press in Lexington, Cincinnati, Nashville, Memphis, Chicago, Indianapolis and Southern Indiana.

Internet marketing will be a crucial portion of how this event will be marketed. We will market the event on AfroPunk.com, an event and targeted PPC advertising will be placed on Facebook.com,. Events will also be created on Myspace.com, Louisville Mojo, Eventful.com, BlackPlanet.com and Craigslist.org.

With your help as a sponsor advertising packets can be created for distribution to involved artists, volunteers & street team members.

STREET TEAM

Street Team members will be individuals interested in assisting with grass-roots advertising. They will promote the event with strategic placement of posters, passing out handbills at events, and the use of their personal networks on websites such as Facebook and Myspace. Ideal candidates would be active in the regional music/arts scenes, college students active on their campus and individuals who have a passion for the success of AfroPunk at Art Sanctuary.

The Goal of Afropunk at Art Sanctuary

We want AfroPunk the film to start discussions and conversations which are far overdue.

We want to showcase musicians who are talented and exciting, as well as local Louisville visual artists in a positive way. The motivation behind this event to expose the Midwest/Kentuckiana area to bands, films, and ideas which have remained unnoticed.

We want to highlight and expose. We want to break ground and make some history. We want to entertain and expand minds. We want to rock out and have an incredible party which celebrates rock music, the people who make it and the people who appreciate it!

WHAT IS ART SANCTUARY?

Founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 2004, Art Sanctuary was formed around the humanist principle that “Your Life is Your Art.”

We not only provide an open mind and open doors to artists and audience alike, we believe that our mission adds to the cultural flavor of our city. We support the viability and vitality of Louisville’s art community and we want to be a positive part of keeping that scene alive and interesting.

As of August 22, 2007 — retroactive to January 2005 — the IRS has officially recognized Art Sanctuary as a 501(c)3 organization! 501(c)3 status opens up so many opportunities for the organization itself and the artists we support.

What is this event you’ve just stumbled upon, and why should you get involved?

In the Spring of 2010 Art Sanctuary will host an event with a film about rock & roll, display rocker visual art and showcase several rock bands. What makes this event unique event is that the film is about Rock bands, fans of punk & rock bands who just so happen to be Black.

Rock & Roll began with roots in country, jazz and blues. The inspired beginnings of the guitar as a solo instrument along with the creation of the electric guitar changed the sound of the advances in recording technology gave artists the ability to reach a bigger audience. Soul, jazz and country combined into a high-spirited, high-energy art form which grasped the eardrums of the globe.

African-American musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard pioneered a controversial risqué’ art form, which later gave birth to the careers of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin and the transformation from rock into punk, and steps into the world of metal and grunge.

American Rock Music has deep roots in the African American community. The Black community within rock music continues to thrive, yet it presently survives greatly unnoticed.

In 2006, James Spooner, a young man with a heart filled with inspiration and a hand filled with a camera, created a film called AfroPunk. In this film, he asks the greatly ignored questions of, “Who are the Black people attending rock shows, creating rock music? What is their experience?”

The AfroPunk Culture is about more than just music, or the contents of Spooner’s film. The film spawned a message board of devotees and outcasts who identified with the film. This created a family-like community which allows artists, fans, consumers and producers to mingle freely in a Do-It-Yourself environment of encouragement. The community is about Black people, White people, and all different ethnicities joining together to have conversations about music.

AfroPunk turned from simply a film about ethnic teenagers who attended punk rock shows and the talented men and women who create rock music out of love for the sound and culture into a movement and a full-scale festival which spans the course of over a week in Brooklyn, New York.

Music is not about the ethnicity or the complexion of those who create it or perform it. AfroPunk strives to diversify what has become a very Caucasian genre. The approach is not one which seeks pity; it is one of compassion, encouragement and creativity. The AfroPunk team recognizes that for an African-American Rock artist in present times, one must truly take things into their own hands and truly Do-It-Themselves.

And that is what this event intends to be. Afropunk at Art Sanctuary is a true DIY event, planned by the very artists who plan to be involved.