Columbus Songwriters Association has expanded over the years. From 2013, to 2022, look how far we’ve come!
| 2013 Goal: | 2022 (Current) | |
| Songwriter Showcase | 11 Events | 11 Events |
| Finale Showcase | 1 Event | 1 Event |
| Community Events | 2 Events | 20 Events (The Parlor) |
| Paid Gigs | 10 | 200 |
| Workshops | 2 | 1 |
| Members | 50 | 500 |
| Volunteers | 21 | 20 |
| Collaboration | 10 Partners | 25 Partners |
| Financials | Break Even | Sustainable |
| Music Industry Network | 10 Experts | 78 Experts |
| Board of Directors | 3 Members | 6 Members |
2017:
CSA expanded our partner network to launch new opportunities for songwriters in Central, Ohio. We worked with the The New Albany Classic to create a new songwriting opportunity for our members, sent a caravan of songwriters to perform alongside hit songwriters in the The Power of Music Festival (in Bentonville Arkansas), presented an official panel at SXSW (Austin), and received new support from Donatos and The Greater Columbus Arts Council to present our monthly showcases. CSA also inspired the launch of a new songwriting group, the Ozark Regional Songwriters Association, and was recognized as an example of music community during major conferences like SXSW, Canadian Music Week in Toronto, World Music Expo (WOMEX), Warsaw Music Export, and the Katowice Music Summit in Poland.
2018:
CSA expanded our showcases into Brothers Drake Meadery. We also increased our global network through involvement in conferences through The United Nations (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network. We worked locally on events with Donatos, Pint & Vinyl, and other organizations to create new songwriting gigs for songwriters. We also contributed to programmatic efforts with the Columbus Music Commission, worked with I’ll Fly Away Foundation, and presented a music technology discussion at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Our Founder began tinkering on a street performance technology called “Lamp Amp” and launching a private event space called “The Parlor.”
2019:
CSA brought in hit songwriter Brent Baxter to lead a songwriting workshop, prior to the Finale Showcase. We began collaborating with the Gahanna Arts Council and Hilliard Tourism Department to consider how downtown songwriters could engage in the suburbs. We partnered with House By House West on a house concert series at The Parlor in Downtown Columbus. We helped to bring in Maxwell Hughes from The Lumineers and began a grant process to support music education in school systems.
2020:
The pandemic threw a wrench into our events planning for the year, but we pivoted to launch The Hidden Drive-In, The Parlor house concerts, worked directly with Somerset, Ohio and Hilliard City Schools. During this hustle of a year, we realized the need for artists to gain needed funding from the Greater Columbus Arts Council and led some knowledge share on how to access critical resources from local and state private foundations. We held off on applying for grants, realizing the need to “pause” our shared mic Songwriter Showcases until 2022. However, we continued to book songwriters for local stages at Donatos and other establishments, while visiting and checking in with our local and global community of partners and experts. As the year ended, we looked back on our biggest year yet for events operations — work that will require many more volunteers and grants to grow and maintain.
2021:
Columbus Songwriters Association remained in a “paused” state while actively battling state legislation regarding the legalization of house concerts. While looking for opportunities to reintroduce our Songwriter Showcase and Songwriter Circles to our community without supporting the spread of Covid-19 or related variants, we took this year to do extensive advocacy work to introduce a new bill in Ohio, planning our vision for future partners and projects where we may host our Songwriter Showcases, feeling out the willingness of our community to perform live or join into writers circles, touching base with volunteers, partners, and reporting back to private foundations. These critical communications with the music and arts community have set us up for new project areas and operations in 2021 that will support the positive growth of our community.
With any questions, message us: Joey@ColumbusSongwriters.com
columbussongwriters.com 