UNIFIED are proud to announce the winners of The Unified Grant. Today, The Unified Grant awarded twenty-five thousand dollars in grants to five creatives to help them realise their dreams behind the scenes in the music industry.
Established by UNIFIED Founder and CEO Jaddan Comerford and announced during his keynote speech at BIGSOUND 2016, the goal of The Unified Grant is to foster the next generation of driven creatives who want to work in music but don’t play an instrument. Open any inspired ideas behind the scenes of the music industry, in its first year The Unified Grant had close to 200 applicants across the globe from a variety of disciplines and the five winners were chosen by a dedicated panel.
The inaugural recepients of The Unified Grant who will be awarded $5000 each to put towards their
dreams are:
- Michelle Grace Hunder & Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, Her Sound, Her Story. Her Sound, Her Story is a collaborative art project that contributes to the very important narrative about women in the Australian Music Industry through photography and film. Her Sound, Her Story documents the experiences of women of all ages, genres, sexuality and ethnicity within the industry with the hope to challenge stereotypes and break down stigmas.
- Georgia Beach, Office Gossip Design. Office Gossip Design bridges the gap between creators and their community through graphic design. Located in Darwin, Office Gossip Design works out of the Skinnyfish creative hub and travels to remote parts of the Territory to help indigenous and Northern Territory creatives share their work with a broader audience.
- Neal Walters, Photography. Neal Walters is a professional music photographer who captures musicians at their most candid. He is currently working on a photography book that will feature portraits of people in the music industry alongside photos of the subject in their happy place.
- Aaron Dobos, Producer/Engineer/Mixer. Aaron Dobos has been working in studios around Melbourne for over seven years and has set up his own space which will allow him to work with up and coming Australian bands with limited budgets to produce a world-class sound that previously may have been out of reach.
- Ashleigh Hills, Tram Sessions. Tram Sessions is a Melbourne initiative that takes the joy of live music and seats it next to unsuspecting commuters. Since launching in 2010, Tram sessions has hosted over 100 artists including Paul Kelly, Josh Pyke, Paul Dempsey and Hands Like Housesand recently pulled into Adelaide.
Click below to meet the recepients of The Unified Grant and get a more in-depth look at their ideas.
The Unified Grant winners left to right: Ashleigh Hills, Aaron Dobos, Michelle Grace Hunder & Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, Neal Walters, Georgia Beach. Download Hi Res Photo here.
“It’s with great pleasure we announce the winners of The Unified Grant. Reading close to two hundred applications gave me so much inspiration and excitement,” says Comerford. “It’s great to see so many amazing people out there with ideas that are contributing to Australian culture. We are very proud to support the industry and the future growth and health of it. Choosing five winners was near impossible, but we got there, and I couldn’t be more proud to be awarding The Unified Grant to these extraordinary individuals.”
Born out of the idea that everyone starts somewhere, including UNIFIED which started in a bedroom with nothing and has grown into a full service music company specializing in all aspects of an artist’s career that has seen success with talent such as Illy, Nina Las Vegas, Northlane, The Amity Affliction, Vance Joyand Violent Soho.
The Unified Grant will be open for applications once again in 2017 and to all original ideas behind the scenes of the music industry: photographers, producers, videographers, web developers, graphic designers, journalists, app builders, data analysts and all the other disciplines that haven’t yet come into focus.
Information about the 2017 grant will be announced on The Unified Grant website in the new year.
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