EQ Austin is a non-profit organization whose mission is to stimulate cultural representation and foster economic prosperity in the music and creative sector through an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens.

EQ Austin acts as a shared repository for the music community that is a central equity, diversity and inclusion resource database to shepherd resources available to the industry. Through engagement, dissemination of information, media and references, we build consensus among divergent groups and individuals. 

EQ Austin prioritizes multicultural arts initiatives with groups including the City of Austin to boost the creative economy.  We help develop programs to promote Austin’s diverse cultural heritage including cultural events and venues; a city-wide multi-cultural festival; culture-based tourism; and educational materials. 

EQ Austin facilitates strategic initiatives to connect the creative community to available resources, including but not limited to: programs, funding, health assistance, business education and assistance, financing resources, and revenue accelerators. By applying a critical cultural equity filter, we also bridge the gap between underserved communities and the creative industry to better support revenue development, charities, performance venue preservation, festivals and studios.

Through community partners in education, EQ Austin promote diversity within Austin’s creative workforce by providing underserved and lower socioeconomic area residents with training and internship opportunities.

EQ Austin facilitates cultural equity through preservation of historical materials including print and electronic media, recordings and documents in partnership with institutional and educational partners. We focus on specific ethnic populations and musical genres in support of capacity building projects.

Through research of the creative sector, EQ Austin encourages intercultural exchange by ensuring that methods to collect data and survey respondents reflect the demographic make-up of the community. We help identify short term needs/or accelerate current work in the area of equity, diversity and inclusion, and identify potential partners for these items, public and private.


EQ AUSTIN BOARD MEMBERS

OUR HISTORY

City of Austin Mayor Steve Adler introduced the Austin Music & Creative Ecosystem Omnibus Resolution in 2016, outlining challenges facing the city’s creative industries. It describes the music and creative ecosystem as “a powerful means of connecting people that bridges linguistic and cultural divides, and is a vehicle for identity and expression like no other.” 

The first set of City of Austin Music and Creative Ecosystem Stabilization Recommendations included mention of equity, diversity, and inclusion. “Diversity” brings to mind concepts of race and ethnicity for many. However, the term includes other important areas of diversity such as underrepresented music genres, socioeconomic status and gender, and people experience them as intersectional rather than separated and hierarchical.

EQ Austin was officially launched October 24, 2018, to address Austin’s creative sector’s need to better reflect the demographic make-up of the community. Austin music committed itself to being at the forefront of a national conversation about how music can and should reflect and embrace diversity. 

EQ Austin was sparked by the City of Austin’s interest in the issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion but has grown through the interest of the leadership of ALL ATX, a private sector initiative initially created to benefit music foundational programs like the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM), the SIMS Foundation, Austin Music Foundation, Black Fret, Music Venue Alliance Austin, and EQ Austin. ALL ATX has developed a leadership program that develops strategies on how music related businesses can work with each other to build a stronger and more connected creative business sector in Austin. The ALL ATX leadership represent numerous experts and leaders in their respective fields, innovators, business people, and music centric nonprofits.

​EQ Austin will collaborate extensively with stakeholders from ALL ATX to help identify gaps in needs and corresponding resources; to document music business development needs; to propose affordability solutions; and, to identify needed foundational support for musicians and program navigation.