The W’ALL, a project based out Austin, is teaming up with musicians, celebrities, and visual artists to create the largest crowd-sourced piece of art for social good since the AIDS Quilt and is looking for help from folks like you.
The W’ALL team is currently accepting submissions of uplifting, beautiful, or personally significant song lyrics from people all over the world to adorn a sprawling art wall and sculptural installation of wood, vinyl, metal, and rope.
“We are reclaiming the idea of a wall,” said Tim Wakefield, artist leading the project.“Notas divisive, but as unifying and strong. The project aims to avoid the thinking of me vs. you, us vs. y’all. Instead we’re focusing on‘w’all,’or‘weall,’ to build something powerful together.”
Anyone can go to The W’ALL’s website and submit their favorite song lyric to be added to the growing installation. To promote the piece and source lyrics, the project is partnering with some big names Panic! At the Disco’s Brendon Urie and Julien Baker to encourage submissions.*
But the project extends beyond creation of art. Though it is free to send in a lyric, fans are encouraged to add a donation with their submission that’s forwarded on to one of several social justice-focused charities for which the W’ALL is fundraising. Every other month, the W’ALL picks a new cause and group of non-profits to support.
For February, what Wakefield is calling “the month of love,” all donations go to LGBTQ+ charities like GLAD, SAGE, and The Trevor Project. April, meanwhile, will highlight non-profits focused on environmental protection.
“We have two goals. First we want to partner with musicians to activate their fan bases to financially support critically important organizations” says Jeremy Klitzman, GM of the project.“Buton a more macro scale, we want to highlight that, despite how it may feel in the current political environment, there’s still much that binds us all together. Art, and especially music, is something we all can appreciate and rally behind in times of darkness.”
The project is an offshoot of Soundwaves Art Foundation, a leading music philanthropy foundation and art studio that has worked with over 200 world-famous musicians including Elton John, Coldplay and Dolly Parton to generate nearly $2.5 million dollars in donations to social justice causes.
“The W’ALL seeks to be a one-of-a-kind melding of philanthropy, public art and music fandom that is ever-evolving to create unique experiences,” says Wakefield, who also runs Soundwaves Art Foundation.“Bygiving musicians a platform to galvanize their fans to support social causes, we hope to raise support in the forms of direct financial contributions and increased awareness to the discussion of social issues.”
This article was originally published in Curve on September 6, 2020.
