A BRIEF HISTORY OF FORGOTTEN SONG FOUNDATION, INC.
Our Mission
Forgotten Song Foundation, Inc., a registered 501c3 organization, is dedicated to recognizing, remembering, and sustaining the visual artists and performance artistry of live music for future generations.
Forgotten Song Foundation, Inc. [“FSF”] was founded in March of 2015. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the arts in the Las Vegas community and showcase live entertainment, visual artists, dance, and support up-and-coming young adults majoring in the arts at a college level. FSF began to fundraise with a fundamental grassroots approach during that year. But the organization has grown in so many ways since then.
In 2015, FSF was given a generous grant for a project called Midnight Muse – Milestones in Music – Las Vegas. The project was a film, book, and a 2 CD set produced by Forgotten Song Music, LLC, a publishing company that created the project. The foundation was established to continue the expansion of the collection so that it could become licensed and reproduced to be on PBS and elsewhere. The Centennial Grant Commission had a program that awarded grants to 501c3 foundations that had projects focused on the history of Las Vegas, and Midnight Muse was a perfect candidate for it. Forgotten Song Foundation, Inc. became the 501c3 and sister to Forgotten Song Music, Inc. The film is still being aired on Amazon Prime and Golden Entertainment TV Network. There are also special Jazz Studies Classes online that can be subscribed to at no charge. A generous percentage of the proceeds of the sale of the remaining merchandise is earmarked for the foundation.
In May 2016, FSF gave out their first scholarships, amounting to $1500—$500 to the Jazz Studies department at Community College of Southern Nevada and $1000 to the University of Nevada – Las Vegas Jazz Studies program. We honored the awardees at our very first VIVA Awards (Vegas Icon Visionary Awards), showcased live music and art, and honored some local icons that supported the arts over the years. In 2022, The VIVA Awards celebrated its 8th year.
As of 2023, we are delighted to say that we have now awarded over $75,000 in scholarships and grants to the art community, the college, and the university. We have also contributed more than $23,000 to local entertainers, artists, and the dance community for performances that we hired them to perform for our fundraising events over the years.
Before our tenth anniversary in 2025, our goal as a foundation is to award $100,000 or more in scholarships and grants. We will always continue to support the working entertainers and artists by hiring them to participate in our events, and we are determined to add to that amount exponentially, too.
We have come a long way from awarding $1500 a year to $15,000 a year in scholarships and grants to like-minded organizations focused on the arts, and we have high expectations of hitting our goal of $100,000 on or before 2025. We will continue to shine the light on the arts in Las Vegas, and with the help of our generous supporters, we’ll realize our goals ahead of schedule.