Gilchrist Helps Bring Live Entertainment to Your Living Room
2020 felt like the year everything was taken away. Because large gatherings weren’t permitted, we lost out on attending ceremonies, family reunions, dances and enjoying live music. All of the performers booked for summer 2020 were canceled but instead of waiting for the pandemic to subside, one group turned lemons into lemonade by not only streaming live music for homebound audiences but giving them a rare behind-the-scenes look at the artists themselves. Levitt at the Falls, with help of a micro-grant from the Gilchrist Foundation, created its Levitt In Your Living Room digital program.
Levitt In Your Living Room
Levitt In Your Living Room offers a sneak peek at some of the musicians set to perform on the Levitt stage this summer in Sioux Falls, S.D. The engaging digital program features both interviews and music, enabling audiences to get to better understand the artists and preview the performances coming to the Sioux Falls Levitt Shell.
Episodes are streamed on Facebook Live on select Saturdays at 7 p.m. Levitt In Your Living Room features artists who have played or were scheduled to play on the Levitt stage. While the program plays the artists’ music, it goes deeper by including conversations with artists about things that happened in their careers that informed their music, how they connected to their creations and simply learn more about the artists themselves. Artists are scheduled through May and previous episodes can be accessed from the website.
About Levitt at the Falls
Levitt at the Falls is part of a national network of outdoor Levitt music venues and concert sites dedicated to strengthening the social fabric of communities. Presenting a broad array of music genres and cultural programming, Levitt venues bring together families, friends and neighbors of all ages and backgrounds.
The Levitt at the Falls project started in 2011 as a three-way partnership between the local Friends of the Levitt Shell Sioux Falls (Levitt at the Falls) non-profit, the National Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, and the City of Sioux Falls. The venue is a gorgeous outdoor shell that was completed in the spring of 2019. It is only one of eight Levitt venues in the nation, the others being in Los Angeles, Calif.; Dayton, Ohio; Memphis, Tenn.; Denver, Colo.; Westport, Conn.; Arlington, Texas; and Bethlehem, Penn. All three partners played a key role in Sioux Falls securing the permanent Levitt venue.
The Gilchrist Foundation awarded Levitt at the Falls a $5,000 micro-grant in 2020 to help bring Levitt In Your Living Room to its audience. The Gilchrist Foundation awards micro-grants throughout the year to nonprofit organizations whose missions align with the Foundation’s, promoting the arts, wildlife or conservation.
Grant requests may be submitted at any time and will be either accepted or denied within 30 days. This grant allows non-profit groups to receive funding for smaller projects on a one-time basis. Criteria for award will include the opportunity to bring theater, music, art, green spaces, parks, wildlife and conservation efforts into the lives of Siouxland residents. For more information about the Micro-Grant Project, contact Security National Bank at 712-277-6586 or wealth@snbonline.com.