VERI ET RECTI AMICI (VERA)

TRUE AND SINCERE FRIENDS

The Vera Project (Vera) is what every teenager wants, a music-arts center run by and for youth. By engaging participants at all levels of music production and community organizing, Vera strives to fulfill its mission to fuel personal and community transformation through the vehicle of popular music shows produced in partnership with young people in Seattle.

Since its inception in 2000, Vera has provided a unique resource to Seattle's youth and music community by maintaining a safe, alcohol-and-smoke free environment for people of all ages to come together and experience music in a way that transcends commercial entertainment and erases divisions between performer, staff and audience.

Beyond simply presenting music shows, Vera seeks to fulfill a specific need in the community. Vera is the only dedicated all-ages music venue in Seattle that 1) offers access to education and participation for young people who want to pursue their music-related interests, 2) provides emerging musicians the opportunity to perform and gain exposure in a professional environment, and 3) combines quality late-night all-ages entertainment with diverse music-arts programming.

"Vera has allowed me to explore myself and my interests during a time when other people and places ignored me. At Vera I'm viewed as someone who has something to give, not just another weird kid." Calla Hummel, Vera Volunteer

Access and participation are particularly essential to Vera's function. Vera is unique in its ability to accommodate interests ranging from sound engineering to community and event organizing to voter registration. Vera's passionate, patient, and professional approach to popular music has opened up new worlds to thousands of young people, many of whom have never actively taken part in their communities before.

Vera's program structure stresses full participation in its governance as well as its learning opportunities, thus providing the ingredients crucial for youth to learn practical and positive life skills that have lasting, positive effects on the individual and community. For years adults have asked young people to volunteer and be engaged in the community; at Vera youth now have productive, meaningful roles that they themselves have been able to shape. Without Vera, this unique blend of popular music and civic involvement would not exist in Seattle.

"There is nothing more inspiring to me than seeing young individuals working and playing passionately in an arts community that is truly their own. It is rare to find a place where kids can govern and learn with the support of adults, rather than the adults dictating their course. The Vera Project is a breeding ground for these young artists, engineers and musicians to grow into leaders of our community and beyond." Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam