Ben Fortunato (He/Him) and Karen Gonzalez (She/Her) approach their final moments in the Master of Arts in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship program. They have come together to form Stream Stand. Stream Stand is a project series that will bring diverse musicians from various backgrounds through a nomination to feature in our featured artists series. Stream Stand’s primary goal is to showcase these artists and add an added human element to their music. People who watch this series will have the opportunity to donate to an “artist fund” where donors’ money will be distributed evenly between musicians. 

As musicians themselves, Ben and Karen have felt the impact of the pandemic on the arts. They shared a desire to bring people together to support deserving musicians while also giving viewers a more intimate look at their featured artists’ lives. The Stream Stand will launch on April 16th, 2021, on Youtube. April will include interviews with women in jazz amongst educational podcasts and a workshop. Donating money to the artist fund will allow Stream Stand to provide these musicians’ financial stimulus for future projects and monetary relief. To ensure this project’s visibility and success, Stream Stand is crowdfunding to cover marketing costs, administrative fees, web maintenance, and video editing software to allow videos to be captioned for accessibility. Any donation would be deeply appreciated.