ListenUP Foundation – The origins of ShowUP Music
ListenUP Foundation – The origins of ShowUP Music
January 2024, we began our journey by founding the ListenUP Foundation, a non-profit focused on making music accessible to the youth with a modern music curriculum, created using preferred styles for neurodiverse learners. In partnering with The Friend of Fallowfield ‘The Place at Platt Lane’ (Fallowfield library & community centre), we created the ‘Great Fallowfield Get Together’ Music, Arts & Food festival to raise awareness for the 1st semester of ListenUP! and successfully launched in September 2024 with a FULL cohort of students.
ListenUP was a self-paced, applied & collaborative modern music curriculum over a 4-month semester and was catered for a 1-week Bootcamp as well. ListenUP offered free music sessions for the youth to provide those who have no access. 150 students completed our curriculum & our goal was to facilitate ListenUP in any community space where access to the arts was restricted for youth. This curriculum has proven that it would be hugely beneficial to many Adults are partner would consistently join and follow our curriculum that brought many families to meet, connect & explore their creativity.
We asked each student feedback questions at the beginning and end of each semester about preferred styles of learning. We received 100% feedback at the end of each semester, asking for collaborative sessions only. We determined that the youth are mirrors of their environment, which led us to come together in creating a creative community. We hope to be able to provide this very positively impactful curriculum again by raising funding through highlighting the importance of addressing the feedback of the youth in bringing about the existence of the ShowUP collaborative, creative community.
Sadly, ListenUP had to close its doors in September 2025 due to a lack of funding options; however, it was the fruition of understanding the positive impact of prioritising collaboration. The feedback we gathered from our students was a reflection of the wants & needs of adults, as 100% of students prioritised collaborative learning after our 4-month semester. We immediately created ShowUP Music, a creative community to collaborate, create & connect.
We launched our 1st-ever jam night inside the Place at Platt Lane Library to pilot an idea and established our 1st Open Mic & Jam night in April 2025, endorsing Artist in Bouzouki by Night. This has become a thriving weekly Tuesday collaborative & inclusive community event with a growing community of creatives we endorse. We offer a cosy live music environment, an engaging audience atmosphere, and outstanding creative networking opportunities.
We advocate for artists to support one another with their mental wellbeing by highlighting positive values & we offer free creative sales consultation for the community. In July 2026… yes, our 1-year birthday, we received a nomination for the Best of Manchester Awards in the category of ‘Championing Skills & Confidence for Work’ and received this letter from the Mayor.
We are grateful for the recognition of our community empowerment through guiding creative, passion-driven independents. We are a proactive creative community that works with venues to bridge music and ALL creative arts.
✨WE WELCOME PERFORMERS & SPECTATORS✨
