BIG LEAP COLLECTIVE
Ellie Stokes started Big Leap Collective at Ruth Asawa SOTA as her senior capstone project, and since then, it’s grown into a business!
An excerpt from Big Leap Collective’s website:
“The Big Leap Collective is a San Francisco-based art and music collective dedicated to giving independent, self-started artists and musicians all over the world a platform to showcase and promote their work in pop-up settings, through social media outreach, and rockin' performance opportunities.”
Ellie developed this collective to maintain the strong local emphasis on art and music that the Bay Area cherishes. Moving forward with Big Leap, Ellie has decided to extend this to independent creatives all over the globe- there's so much talent and passion out there, and Big Leap’s here to help promote and showcase it.
Big Leap had its first and only real-life event called “Night Market” on February 22nd, 2020 at Hunt & Gather Gallery, featuring local artists: vendors, designers, and musicians.
Big Leap has also started “Big Zinin’ Vol. 1,” their first independent publication, featuring 28 visual artists, organizations: nonprofits and community activism platforms, and independent bands from all over the world. They are currently working on their second volume!
“Lil’ Book, Big Reviewin’” is Big Leap’s most recent pocket-sized zine that features new music reviews by independent artists from all over the world.
One of Big Leap’s most remarkable achievements as an organization was “Big Feb Fest,” a day-long music festival that Ellie organized to be a Hardly Strictly for exclusively independent artists (some of whom have since gotten signed!). Featured artists were from all over the world: the USA, Chile, South Africa, and Norway. They raised over $1000 for all of the featured independent artists through crowdfunding efforts. Big Leap also garnered a lot of press, including an SF Gate article (shoutout to Dan Gentile who wrote it)!
Big Leap is planning on continuing “Big Feb Fest” annually as a hybrid event, both in-person and virtual, so they can still include folks that are not from the Bay Area.
Big Leap’s “The Green Room” is a monthly hour-long show on Twitch featuring sets from four new independent artists from all over the world every fourth Thursday at 5:30 PM. They emphasize donating to five different humanitarian organizations and mutual aid each month. If audience members donate money, they get the chance to spin the wheel and win Big Leap prizes: art and merch!
“Big Leap Radio” is a recently-debuted monthly playlist featuring music by independent artists that Big Leap streams a couple of days a week every month on their Twitch.
Ellie is also a DJ and on the operations board at KXSF 102.5 FM community radio!
Taking inspiration from her work at KXSF, Ellie decided to create another platform to give back to indie artists who often get the short end of the stick when it comes to getting compensated. So, she set up a donation-based royalty system so that bands can get paid for having their song on the radio to challenge major streaming services that pay their artists a fraction of a cent per stream. As a result, the last time they streamed a playlist, each artist walked away with $1.50 per stream, unlike streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music that pay a cent or less per stream.
Ellie is passionate about starting a volunteer community lookout crew to help protect women, nonbinary, queer, trans, and youth concertgoers who are often more prone to sexual assault and coercion. As shows start to open again, she wants to emphasize that just because we’re reopening doesn’t mean that things can stay the same regarding the toxic culture that comes with such a wonderful music community.
Big Leap is currently working on a couple of COVID-safe live shows for the summer and setting up a residency at a local non-profit outdoor venue for independent local and touring bands and community art shows.
It's time for you to make a Big Leap! If you’re an artist of any medium and you need help booking events, getting your music on the radio, or participating in inclusive community art shows and concerts, then reach out to Ellie!
Big Leap Collective’s Linktree
CAPSTONE PROJECT • BIG LEAP COLLECTIVE ~ ELLIE STOKES, MUSICAL THEATRE 2020