Everything Went Down is about the healing power of music.  Music is friendship – it brings people together, and bonds them in ways that only a shared love of art can.  The makers of Everything Went Down are great believers in the capacity of art and music to heal people, physically and emotionally.  In our injured economy, in the wake of eight years of arts-poor funding under the Bush administration, and with continued cuts on the horizon, it is their intention that this film celebrate music, how it bonds us to each other and makes our lives better.  Because without music, and without art, we hurt.

Everything Went Down writer/director Dustin Morrow is an active advocate of art and music therapy programs.  He is a board member of the innovative Arts and the Quality of Life Research Center, which promotes research, training, and innovative programs that demonstrate the unique role of the arts in making a difference in people’s lives.  The Center has secured multiple grants from such groups as The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.  Morrow also produced Arts at your Side, a documentary for that Center that profiles a number of music therapy projects, including a songwriting program for at-risk inner-city youth and a music composition program for children with spinal cord injuries.  Everything Went Down star and composer Kate Tucker has also donated her time and talents as a songwriter and musician to multiple music therapy programs.

Arts and music therapy programs, and arts and music education programs, need your help.  No matter where you are in the United States, it’s likely there are arts and music programs for which you can volunteer, or to which you can donate.  You don’t need to be an artist or a musician to make a difference – most of these programs need other kinds of volunteer support as well, and financial donations at the very least.  These are some great place to start:

The American Art Therapy Association

www.arttherapy.org

The International Art Therapy Organization

www.internationalarttherapy.org

The Journal of the American Art Therapy Association

www.arttherapyjournal.org

The American Music Therapy Association

www.musictherapy.org

Musicians on Call

www.musiciansoncall.org

Profits generated by the release of Everything Went Down will be donated to music therapy programs for children.