To that end, we established The Music Gram Project in our home city of Boston, Massachusetts where we serve as the Ensemble in Residence at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, (BHCHP) and along with Common Art and homeless individuals, we employ their residents to create the cover designs and music, (collaborating with our musicians) for the Music Grams.

What makes it a Music Gram is the intention of the gift as well as the origin of the artwork and music. The impact goes both ways, and nourishes the recipients as well as the artists. Our partners gain the pride of being able to give a gift they helped create, coupled with the dignity and the viability of employment.

Past residencies of the Citizen’s Artist Orchestra, (CAO) include the Art House Alliance of Syracuse, New York where we established a home for artists in dire need of financial assistance in exchange for sharing their gifts with their surrounding communities. We were honored to receive a CORA Foundation Grant from the Central New York Arts Council in 2019 and served as Syracuse University’s Teaching Ensemble in Residence for a newly created course at the School of Visual and Performing Arts from 2016-2019.

We have also been acknowledged by the Roxbury Highland Foundation for our work with students in the Boston inner city schools who lost their music programs as well as having been the recipients of the Geraldine Ford, Lydia & Frank Bergen and Alice Tully Foundation Grants for our work with disabled children in the New York Metropolitan area.

The Citizen’s Artist Orchestra operates under the umbrella of Lyrica Boston Inc., a 501 C 3 non for profit educational and outreach organization.