Building The Shelf with Big Leap Collective

A new series that highlights artist-run organizations that support fellow independent artists and their community.

Featured photo by: Jozie Zamjahn

Welcome to the inaugural Building The Shelf. Building The Shelf is a series that will highlight independent artist ran organizations that support their fellow artists and their community. To kick off the series, Mustard had the pleasure of speaking with Big Leap Collective’s founder Ellie Stokes. This is not the first time we have spoken. Earlier this year, in July, on Music Shelf Mustard spoke to Stokes about their psych-rock band Grooblen. You can check out that interview here.

1. Mustard is grateful to have you join them again. How are you doing today?

Me toooooo, thanks for having me! I'm doing well, gearing up for a fun musical theatre show I'm in and just spending time jamming out and knocking out little things here and there ::)

2. Big Leap Collective is such a cool name. How did you decide on this name? Is there any special meaning behind it?

Big Leap Collective originally got its name because I wanted to create a platform where artists and those interested in learning about the arts and live events could take that first "big leap" to getting more involved in their local community, or even that first step branching out into an entirely new, inclusive and welcoming arts and music community!  

3. Mustard loves that Big Leap Collective is artist run and supports fellow independent artists. Does Big Leap Collective seek out a specific kind of artist or is all art welcomed?

Though we mostly specialize in music, drag, and visual arts, we would absolutely love to branch out to more performance arts in 2023, such as dance and theatre. The big dream is that Big Leap will have an all-ages, fully accessible space where all this creativity can flourish for local and touring acts alike, at no matter the size and experience! I think it's so important to give folks the opportunity to get out there, it helps their artistry bloom into something truly special, which I'm so lucky to have witnessed so many times at our community events! 

4. When did you get the idea to form Big Leap Collective? Did you have previous volunteer experience? What was the community like at the time?

I actually got the idea for Big Leap Collective in my senior year in high school, it was part of a senior thesis for my English class, and when I graduated I decided to build up more of the groundwork and continue to organize more community events. While I was building Big Leap, I was a DJ at a local radio station and I started getting exposed to a whole lot more of local musicians and folks in the creative community. Everyone was lost at the time because COVID had just begun, so I decided to continue our mission of creating accessible events by highlighting these local bands and artists in livestream events which I did via Instagram Live and Twitch almost every week.

5. Big Leap Collective's mission is to create opportunities for diversity, accessibility, and education with immersive community-focused events. Is this something you believe the event industry was lacking? What are some ways you think the event industry can improve this? How does Big Leap Collective put this into action?

I think the mainstream events industry lacks inclusivity and tends to put the same artists on a pedestal, when there's really a whole world of creative people out there who deserve to be celebrated in that same capacity! In regards to education, the live events industry tends to be really closed-off and many don't even know where to begin to learn about skills like sound engineering, production management, and photography (to name a few) unless it's part of a more centralized institution, which usually costs a lot of money! The goal of our educational programs is to allow anyone, regardless of prior experience, to take a stab at their interest in the live events industry for no cost, just pure interest and passion, at our DIY events! 

6. A human is interested in collaborating on an event with Big Leap Collective. What would the process be?

We have a form on our website, bigleapcollective.org, that ANYONE, local/touring/experienced/first time playing a live show, can send us a message about (and YES we answer every inquiry!). When that initial email is sent, we get to know you a little better and start to put something together usually two to three months out from the time we respond. All of this is absolutely free to do and handled by our staff of all volunteers who double as artists. This goes for folks who want to collaborate on events and also play an event! 

7. Big Leap Collective is partnered with Artyhood SF that provides the Valencia Street Art Corridor, a community street fair. For those who have not attended this fair, how would you describe it? When does it happen?

Yes we love Artyhood SF! They put together so many community, outdoors, accessible art and music festivals I can't keep count at this point. We tend to collaborate with them and book artists for mostly their event, Castro Art Mart, now, which is a wonderful celebration of queer joy that happens monthly in the streets of the amazing Castro district in SF. The Valencia Art Corridor is one we don't collaborate on as much anymore, but for any locals or folks visiting, it's just magical! The streets are shut down and artists are vending and creating everywhere, and there's live music all day long too.  

8. Big Leap Collective offers various internships. How can a human apply?

Folks can apply to be interns/apprentices/Big Leap learners and mentors (these are all just different titles for the same thing, hehe!) at this Google form: https://forms.gle/qGxyfoUWJKmf51sT6 which can also be found on our website, bigleapcollective.org ! We offer internships and learning experience in some live events roles such as live sound engineering, event photography, event production, and graphic design. Come learn with us! ::)

9. Mustard wonders will Ska-tember be an annual event? What was it like playing with Angelo Moore of Fishbone?

Ooooo nyeez I would love for Ska-tember to become an annual event! What was so cool about that show was how truly intergenerational it was, we featured different generations of ska and soul music with our lineup and had our amazing interns learn about sound and photography at one of San Francisco's most legitimate venues, The Rickshaw Stop. Angelo is such an incredible person, it was really cool to have him play some classic Fishbone songs with a local nonprofit youth music school, the SF Rock Project and perform in his own group, Angelo Moore and the Brand New Step. Angelo even took the time to give some music lessons to the kiddos which was truly special to experience! I'd love to throw a Ska-tember event next year, or even branch it out to different niche genres of music and keep this model going. I'm honestly still reeling from that night :,)

10. On October 13th you hosted the first Big Leap Workshop Series. Could you share more about this event? Will there be future Workshops?

Yes yes and YES! We hosted our first Booking 101 workshop in October 2022 for musicians, and it was a big ol' success, with folks attending from here in the Bay Area all the way to the East Coast! We're gearing up for more accessible, community-oriented workshops in 2023 to help artists start putting themselves out there and to reveal some hidden industry secrets that are often gate-kept from smaller creative communities. 

11. Does Big Leap Collective have any upcoming events?

Darn tootin'! We're finishing up 2022 with two great community, all-ages shows, one is Disco Drag Night and the other is a showcase of some great local indie jazz fusion music. And WHOOSH in 2023 we have a fun live sound apprenticeship partnership coming up with Treefort Music Fest in Boise, where we get to fly out and house one or two folks who are interested in learning about sound engineering at a truly cool, inclusive, professional music festival. We have some other unannounced workshops and shows coming up in 2023 as well!

12. Going into 2023 what are some goals of Big Leap Collective?

Some goals we have going into 2023 are having every show be NOTAFLOF or free and still have enough money to pay the artists and venues we collaborate with, making more meaningful partnerships with other nonprofits and community organizations, having monthly community workshops, providing more health resources and harm reduction at our shows and in-person workshops, and gosh, just being able to highlight new artists, get new folks learning from our educational program and so much more! Those are the primary goals for sure ::)

13. Where can readers find out more about Big Leap Collective?

The best place to keep up with Big Leap Collective is on Instagram @bigleapcollective , and also at our website bigleapcollective.org !

Interested in reading more interviews like this? Check out www.musicshelfwithmustard.com with interviews with independent artists from all over the globe.