Join The Movement
During the holidays, community-focused nonprofits like ours reach out to supporters like you with hope you will hear us out and understand the importance of community support.
Support can come in many forms: monetary, in-kind, or even volunteering your time. But what does the money, the time, and the resources you donate really do for the community? Allow us to elaborate.
Austin’s a pretty great city, isn’t it? Great food, live music, so many talented artists of all mediums, dog friendly, cat friendly, human friendly, and home to some of the best creators in the world. But imagine for a moment what Austin would be like without its creative communities. What colors would this great city paint without its hard working musicians, artists, and filmmakers?
Take this moment to really ask yourself:
Would you still want to live here?
Would there be a booming economy?
Would you have the same job?
Would it be the same city?
Unfortunately, this is something we don’t have to imagine, because we see the very people who put Austin on the map being forced to stop creating due to the rising cost of rent, organizations being priced out, or property being sold off to make way for “something new” with alarming frequency.
In fact, recent data shows it happening throughout every major city in America right now.
So, HOW do you successfully engage, support, and contribute to Austin’s arts & culture if the very people the arts aim to promote are consistently shut down, priced out, and displaced?
Motion Media Arts Center’s 20,000 square foot home in East Austin.
That’s where Motion Media Arts Center stepped in, and this is where you can too.
In 2014, Motion Media Arts Center began to develop a plan. A really good one!
Before the coworking boom, before the dozens of cranes, and before it started to really hit home — we could feel the heat creeping.
We gathered data, we met with local filmmakers, designers, artists, students and East Austin residents directly. We knew we’d have to make some moves and quick - our own building had been sold to a developer and we slowly started seeing the disappearance of local small creative businesses.
We asked questions:
What do you need to create?
What do you need to keep learning?
How can you keep working, creating, thriving?
How can we positively contribute to the beautiful culture & artists who have been rooted in East Austin for decades?
Historically, our organization has always been located in East Austin. Our Programs Director Faiza Kracheni (an East Austin Veteran) has always put community and working class artists to the forefront of our programs.
Through this dedicated mission, board leadership, and a hardworking staff, MMAC set out to revitalize a 20,000 square foot industrial warehouse in East Austin— and transform the space into a truly vibrant home for hundreds of local creatives, artists, organizations, students, and community events.
…And guess what? We did just that.
MMAC launched Austin Cinemaker Space in October 2016— it remains Austin’s first and only non-profit MAKE/WORK space + venue hybrid, designed to provide an alternative to costly traditional coworking spaces for working artists, media makers, and all creatives alike. It provides tools, resources, space, with access to equipment, software, and events to its members— all for low cost, starting at only $30/month.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Our membership plans are affordable, all-inclusive, and evolve in realtime to serve the creative community’s needs. You won’t find fancy beer taps or espresso bars in our space, but you will find super-fast iMac computers fully loaded with creative software, film/photo gear, studio rentals, and loads of other amenities useful to a working creative.
With this also came an expansion for our award-winning educational program Austin School of Film, which provides over 500 classes year-round in art, film, and creative technology to all ages. In a new space with more room to grow, Austin School of Film tripled its class offerings and increased the student population by 43% over the past three years. In fact, we awarded over $50,000 in scholarships to both youth and adults in 2019 alone.
Take a peek at this gallery filled with photos taken at Motion Media Arts Center over the past year:
HARD NUMBERS IN 2019:
Austin Cinemaker Space provided creative space to 472 creatives & organizations in 2019. This means: a space for meetings, photo/film shoots, auditions, rehearsals, and everything in between.
We made our home open to 126 events produced by the Austin creative community including local nonprofits like BossBabes ATX, Creative Action, CASA, ATX Stage Diversity, Transform Film Fest, Contrast Film Fest, and Exploded Drawing.
Austin School of Film served 400 youth students under the age of 18 and 6,240 adults directly through low-cost classes and workshops.
We became fiscal sponsors to 35 independent projects produced by local creatives
…and the year isn’t even over yet so you better believe these aren’t our final 2019 Impact numbers!
If you’ve made it this far, I bet you’re wondering how you can help.
Motion Media Arts Center is a dedicated organization that truly believes in the power of the arts, believes creating equal access creates a better world, and has been actively working to positively affect people by providing access to education, resources, tools for over 20 years now.
Your donation of money, time, or resources is what makes our globally unique arts and education programs possible. Like, really. Without you, we quite literally wouldn’t exist.
So, say it with us: Keep Austin Learning. Keep Austin Creating. Keep Austin Working.
—OTHER WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE—
1) BECOME A MEMBER
Like seriously, if you’re a Central Texas creative and you aren’t a member of Austin Cinemaker Space already - you should be!
Our members include people ranging all mediums & industries including folks from organizations like: CASA, Lilith Fund, Dance Africa Fest, Austin Tinkering School, BossBabes ATX, EXPLODED DRAWING, and more.
We have 250+ members currently who receive access to make/work space, studio time, free equipment rentals, and special events. If that hasn’t convinced you yet, did we mention that memberships start a low price of $30/mon?
2) BECOME A COMMUNITY PARTNER
If you want to get involved in a big way, we curate & develop unique and exciting partnerships with community-driven organizations and businesses whose ethos align with our own.
By partnering with us, YOU will quite literally become a part of a globally recognized & celebrated organization who serves thousands of creatives, filmmakers, and artists each year through our program. Your partnership will show your support to Austin’s creative culture & communities.
Current Community Partners include businesses such as: Austin’s Pizza, Rode Microphones, Big Swig, Kodak Motion Picture, and Alamo Drafthouse. You’ll be joining a roster of some of the best creative businesses in the world!
3) SPONSOR A CHILD
This summer, we will contribute an estimated $25,000 in scholarships to youth under the age of 18 to attend our award-winning summer camps.
By sponsoring a child, you are helping a real-life child attend a two-week summer camp with all expenses paid in 2020. Our camps are a total of 80 hours of learning, include a free camp tee, snacks, pizza party at the end of camp, unforgettable media skills building and peer to peer interaction. All films will screen at the end of the summer at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
We have worked with a number of organizations providing scholarships as well as individual families in need of financial assistance. Those organizations include: The Settlement Home for Children, Refugee Services of Texas, Breakthrough Central Texas and Boys And Girls Club
