Community Songwriting Project

A collaboration between Lawrence University and Riverview Gardens

Overview
In collaboration with the Riverview Gardens ServiceWorks program, Lawrence University will facilitate a songwriting workshop for three to five participants of ServiceWorks during the spring of 2017. Each participant will have the chance to write and produce their own, original song, with one-on-one guidance and support from an experienced student songwriter at Lawrence University. To culminate this experience, each participant’s song will be professionally recorded by Lawrence University musicians at a recording studio in Appleton. The participant will act as the musical “producer” during this recording of their own song, and will be given the CD recording of their song upon completion.

Project Goals

  1. To give people a platform to express their creative voice through words and music.
  2. To build upon ServiceWorks’ mission of providing transferable job skills, by engaging people in the creative act of songwriting and music-making.
  3. To nurture self-confidence and agency in songwriting participants, by encouraging participants to take ownership of their song from beginning to end.
  4. To give participants the foundation and experience to create additional music in the future.

The Community Songwriting Project is in its pilot year this spring, ideally the Community Songwriting Project will expand and be a multi-year project, bringing more residents of the Fox Valley and involving more Lawrence musicians.