Sound.Out Radio Relaunch: Harry Smith centennial featuring Lori Goldston and Swil Kanim

Amount Awarded: $4,975.00

Academic Year: 2023-2024 

Implementation: Fall 2023

This grant supported the relaunch of Sound.Out Radio, a radio art station focused on arts and culture, that is operated, curated, and broadcast by students and faculty at Western. The radio art station streams online and intermittently from the roof of the Western Galley on campus. It serves as an educational tool and radiophonic space for artists, curators, students and community. It first began in 2021 but was halted for a couple of years during the pandemic. 

This grant helped re-launch the radio station, as well as bring two artists/musicians to campus as part of the relaunch event. Lori Goldston is a prolific performer and composer and is perhaps best known for playing cello with Nirvana for their classic MTV Unplugged concert. Lori’s collaborator is Lummi actor and violinist Swin Kanim, whose ancestors were recorded for Harry Smith’s seminal work, the Anthology of American Folk Music, which influenced artists like Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead. This event was coupled with presentations by WWU students about their research and creative scholarship, and the project helped provide students access to ongoing creative and professional opportunities through participation in the radio station. Find out more, as well as listen to the station.