VGMF

Virginia shaped the women’s music movement in NYC and beyond. She took risks and gave new artists a chance, with her tireless efforts on their behalf. She introduced new artists to the public in clubs, schools, and smaller halls. She successfully built audiences for artists such as Sweet Honey In The Rock, Holly Near, Ani DiFranco, George Winston and many more, to spread their messages of positive change. In time, Virginia presented these artists in major venues like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and in cities up and down the East Coast.

Virginia gave many women their entree into the male-dominated music industry, in behind-the-scenes business and technical positions.

Her influence on local and national artists and the music scene was incalculable.

We lost Virginia very suddenly in January 2015. She is deeply missed. One of her last requests was, “Please don’t let people forget about me.” We honor Virginia’s wish, her work, and her memory through the Virginia Giordano Memorial Fund.

SisterSpace Weekend Women’s Festival renamed the Virginia Giordano Amphitheater in her honor with a dedication ceremony in 2018.

The Virginia Giordano Memorial Fund has been created to enable up-and-coming women artists and professionally-oriented “behind the scenes” trainees to participate in the annual SisterSpace festival. The fund provides recipients an opportunity to gain experience and obtain referrals to help build their careers. Virginia Giordano Memorial Fund Artist Honorees will perform onstage. Behind-the-scenes interns are mentored with hands-on experience throughout the weekend, this year and for several years to come. VGMF recipients, in turn, are asked refer other artists and behind-the-scenes interns for nominations, and to help raise awareness about the Fund.

Since 2018, each year the VGMF has sponsored a number of up-and-coming women musicians, spoken word artists, and other performers, giving them a formal stage to perform on, recommending them to other festivals and producers, helping publicize their other gigs and their album releases, and publicly cheering them on when they win songwriting and other performance-related awards. We have successfully referred a number of VGMF Artist Honorees to other festivals. Some are now performing nationally and internationally with luminaries such as Allison Russell, Brandi Carlile, and Rhiannon Giddens. Others are touring on their own and building their audiences online as well as in person. We encourage VGMF Artist Honorees to refer other talented artists to us.

Each year, we’ve mentored between three and six Virginia Giordano Memorial Fund interns behind the scenes: they receive hands-on experience on stage crew and/or artist care crew; and are mentored by senior members of the SisterSpace Stage Crew team.  Several of them have found jobs related to the skills they learned as Virginia Giordano Memorial Fund Interns! Some have become so skilled, they are now themselves VGMF Mentors.

We invite you to participate as well:

• Please make a donation to the Fund. Any amount will make a difference to a young artist or behind-the-scenes intern. You can donate via credit card or PayPal, or send a check to: SisterSpace (please note “VIRGINIA GIORDANO FUND” on the memo line), PO Box 22476, Philadelphia, PA 19110. All donations are tax deductible.
• Consider making donations to this fund part of your annual charitable contribution plan.
• Spread the word. Use social media and/or personal outreach to people you know.
• Have you got a “Virginia story” to share? Send to: info@sisterspace.org

2018 VGMF Recap—Highlights from the Fund’s Inaugural Year

Read tributes to Virginia from: