Rancho Alegre Radio had the distinct pleasure of winning a WeWork Creator Award last night in Austin at ACL Live. We were so very humbled, excited and honored just to have been finalists in the first place! Everyone in our category was inspiring and incredible, as were the finalists in the other two categories.
We sent out a press release to some media this morning...
WeWork announced the grant initiative in March 2017, which includes a pledge of over $20 Million to a wide variety of people, companies and organizations in all corners of the world. WeWork CEO Adam Neumann told CBS This Morning back in March that “the idea is to recognize anyone in the world who’s doing amazing things. It might not be the traditional person that would win an award or be recognized regularly and have access to this kind of cash.” Over the next few months, the awards ceremonies are being held in Washington, DC, Detroit, Austin, London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and Mexico City with a global finals round in New York City.
“On a tip from Sarah Rucker of Full Gallop Arts, we applied for this opportunity. We described our work traveling the state interviewing Tejano and Conjunto musicians and recording their oral histories, analog recording digitization and events like the Rancho Alegre Conjunto Festival at Stubb’s and our upcoming tardeada series with AustinVida at One-2-One Bar,” says Piper LeMoine, Communications Director for Rancho Alegre Radio. “WeWork really valued and admired our dedication to preserving and promoting Tejano and Conjunto music and culture, and rewarded our hard work with this generous grant, which will allow us to continue growing and advocating for this pure Texas music.”
Rancho Alegre Radio kicks off its weekly Tejano Conjunto Sunday Tardeada series at Austin’s One-2-One Bar (1509 S. Lamar) with Grammy award winner David Farias on July 2nd at 6 p.m, with new groups each week. The organization has also already begun planning for their 2018 Cinco de Mayo celebration at Stubb’s and a variety of other projects and events in Austin and beyond.