SunRise Studios Collective

Our Mission

SunRise Studios Collective promotes artistic creativity, cultural preservation, and regenerative lifestyles through a global network of community-based multi-media studios.

Learn about our Process

  • • Provide $3,000 to $10,000 grants to establish modest, high-impact/low-budget media labs and recording studios

    • Offer free production training and mentorship

    • Collaborate with communities to preserve cultural values through music, video, and other forms of artistic expression

    • Connect musicians for global co-creations and share the music of grassroots artists with the world

    • Demonstrate resilient and regenerative living practices

  • • Provide a platform for the community to share its local interests, issues, and views of the future through podcasts and other media outlets

    • Create gathering spaces to produce music, videos, and other artistic expressions. 

    • Increase community resilience through sharing renewable energy technology, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and other sustainable living practices.

    • Support efforts of communities who wish to preserve their indigenous cultures, languages, instruments, and ancient wisdom through digital documentation and recordings.

  • Creatives from communities worldwide will be able to digitally document traditional songs, language, and other ancient practices to pass on critical knowledge to future generations.

    This work is based on endogenous development. The key concepts within endogenous development that are critical to this work are Local control of the development process, taking cultural values seriously, appreciating worldviews, and finding a balance between local and external resources. We honor the understanding that this work is community-led and based on local peoples’ vision of holistic well-being

A powerful song created by SunRise Studios Collective to celebrate the essential connection between water and life. This project involves over 20 musical and video artists from 5 countries. The release is the first in a series of collaborative songs that will be released on Sunrise Studios Records. The second series will focus on soil's role in our lives.

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2024 Impact Report

2024 Impact Report

“The aim of endogenous development is to empower local communities to take control of their own development process. While revitalizing ancestral and local knowledge, endogenous development helps local people select those external resources that best fit the local conditions. Endogenous development leads to increased biodiversity and cultural diversity, reduced environmental degradation, and a self-sustaining local and regional exchange.”
~Endogenous Development Magazine

SRS History

A grant for a Permaculture training center in Togo, West Africa, first connected Nick Morgan of the Rex Foundation with Hannah Apricot of the Abundant Earth Foundation. Soon after, a young man from Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp requested support to build a recording studio. Seeking knowledge from other organizations already creating modest recording studios led to the collaboration with David Satori of Dirtwire and Schree Chavdarov with the LEAF Global Arts organization. From there arose the vision of a global network of low-budget/high-impact recording studios: The SunRise Studios Collective. 
The first studio, completed in April 2022 in Kakuma, Kenya, was made possible by a generous solar system donation from Empowered By Light. SRS now has eight fully operational community studios that combine music, permaculture, and collective development. 

SRS Values

Storytelling | Equity | Integrity | Collaboration | Inspiration
1. We operate with integrity.
2. We advocate for equity.
3. We collaborate with our partners to engage in inspirational storytelling.