Ashley R. Wheat/Alabama Blues Project, How Music Brings People Together
The Alabama Blues Project is a nonprofit organization founded in 1995 to preserve the heritage of Blues music as a traditional and contemporary art form through interactive programs that educate and entertain. “How Music Brings People Together” is a 30-minute speech that provides historical facts regarding the creation of blues music as America’s first homegrown genre and how it has blossomed into different genres, including jazz, country, R&B, hip hop, and more. The presentation discusses how blues music has been adopted all over the world, thus highlighting the impact of American culture on different cultures internationally.
About the presenter:
Ashley R. Wheat joined the Alabama Blues Project as Executive Director in 2019 because of the joy she found in her own experiences in music education. From 6th grade through college, she played clarinet in school bands and became enamored with instrumental music. As a life member of Tau Beta Sigma National Honorary Band Sorority, Inc., Ashley strives to carry out the sorority’s mission to “cultivate leadership, educational achievement, music appreciation and community development.” Ashley holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix and a BS in Business Administration from Stillman College. She served as 2022 Chair of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama’s Nonprofit Council and Tuscaloosa Co-Chair for “The pARTners Project”, a collective impact initiative supported by the National Endowment for the Arts to increase access to arts education for students in West-Central Alabama. Ashley is also a 2023 graduate of Leadership Tuscaloosa.