Angie Goerner

Social Innovation - Creative Entrepreneurship - Project Management

The back porch

...is a summer concert series that began as a quirky idea in a Mount Pleasant back yard and quickly grew into a dynamic weekend destination for the local community.

The concept behind the grassroots event was to create visibility, offer new performance opportunities and build community around the arts. In 3 years, we presented 60 artists, showcasing many different musical genres and styles, and had over 800 audience members attend The Back Porch, which took place every second Sunday between June and October.

Our focus was on presenting emerging artists and bringing amateurs together with more experienced musicians. As a team, we aimed to create a welcoming and nurturing atmosphere, which encourages participation in the arts and gave non-professionals a platform to perform and showcase their music, all in the laid-back context of a back yard summer day. In between each of the three musical acts, storytellers, historians, spoken word poets and writers would also perform short literary pieces.