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Smithsonian Songwriting Intensive

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The Smithsonian Institute opened their Open Access platform at the end of February. They have digitized 14 million collections to be available completely free and accessible online. They wanted to demonstrate how this resource could be used, so they partnered with the Bodecker Foundation and sponsored nine high schoolers in the Portland area to write a song using the site for research. The process was supported by mentoring from Chris Funk (The Decemberists), Karma Rivera, Lisa Vazquez, John Goourly (Portugal the Man), Zach Carothers (Portugal the Man), Adam Lee and Jon Mooallem . Brave Alice documented the project for a short film to show at the grand opening ceremony in Washington DC.

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