In celebration of Phish's 13-show run at Madison Square Garden, the Mockingbird Foundation is announcing 13 unsolicited "miracle grants" supporting music programs across the country. Each board member identified their favorite Phish show, and we found a worthy music education program nearby, part of the Foundation's long-standing Tour Grants program. We're presenting these 13 special grants chronologically, based on the dates of those favorited shows. Following #1, #2, and #3, here's #4...

Ah, 1994 - a truly joyous time to be a Phish fan! The band was bursting at the seams with inspiration, innovation and raw talent...touring incessantly while blowing minds and melting faces on a daily basis. And the fan base was expanding exponentially, many of us sharing our amazement, excitement, tales and friendship with each other via the developing Internet - r.m.p., IRC, post-show run to the pay phone to call Ellis with the setlist, sign up for the tape trees to get last month’s tapes (always saving the MaxPoints!).

As a university student in Santa Cruz I did what I could to get to as many shows as possible, mainly on the West Coast. For my summer tour, that meant seven shows in May, wrapping up with five straight days of Phish - three at the Warfield, followed by two headlining shows in Monterey at the incredible Laguna Seca Daze festival. What a run - the Warfield curtain opening to a monster "Curtain"...a screaming debut of "Simple" melting into a Puccini opera...thousands of boxes of mac and cheese (“shake shake shake when you hear the drum break!”)...Les Claypool dropping hands and jaw as Fish rips on the Electrolux...then a final show under the Monterey sun - my first up close on the rail - with the band so amped to just keep on playing that they dropped a six-song double encore. Nobody wanted to stop, and I knew I needed more more more!

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The Mockingbird Foundation has the pleasure of joining Phish community artists at the upcoming PhanArt Show at The Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas on Saturday, October 29th from 1-6pm.

Art collectors won’t want to miss this one! In addition to selling copies and taking orders of The Phish Companion, 3rd Edition at our event price of $39 (including free shipping), we will be cracking open The Mockingbird Foundation art archives to offer the few “stashed away” extras of some of our most coveted art prints.

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On Sunday night, tune in to Power Radio 88 from 6-7pm EST for a Q&A with Phish Companion co-editor and Mockingbird Foundation Board President, Marco Walsh.

Listen here:

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Screens 'n' Suds has announced their 2016 Chicago Big Event on Saturday, June 25th at Links Taproom. This annual gathering celebrates craft beer and screen printed art while raising money for charity.

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Plenty of exciting events are planned for art loving fans heading to NYC for this NYE run! Here are a few of the big ones that we highly recommend you check out:

David Welker Charity Reception for The Mockingbird Foundation at the Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery

Please join David for a special reception at the Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery in celebration of his acclaimed Subconcious Narratives show. A special limited edition print and new original art will be released at the reception, with proceeds to benefit The Mockingbird Foundation. Refreshments will be served, art will be sold and appreciated, and both David and representatives from Mockingbird will be there to hang out and enjoy your company.

When: Wednesday, 12/30/15. Noon - 4pm.
Where: Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery, 527 West 23rd Street, NYC

NEW ART: A special very limited edition print titled "Rutherford Drowned Again" will be available at the reception, with proceeds to benefit Mockingbird. This 2-layer Line Art Variant of David's "Rutherford" measures 22" x 17", and is a super-limited hand-pulled edition of 50. This will ONLY be sold at the gallery reception, no online sales. In addition, David will be making available on 12/30 previously unseen original art for sale. Any pieces purchased during the reception, either at the gallery or via David's website, will see a portion of the sales price donated to Mockingbird.

Also available at the reception from The Mockingbird Foundation will be a new Rutherford basketball jersey, created in conjunction with David Welker and Boyer Art. This will be the first opportunity to get your fingers on and torso into this awesome new limited edition jersey, so be sure to come down to the gallery before hitting the Phish show!

Next up is an exclusive Phish after-party: META & the Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery Present: David Welker’s Subconscious Narratives: A Late Night Art Meltdown

In collaboration with Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery and Welker Studios, META presents an introspective and moody Phish after-party at Hoerle-Guggenheim on January 1st, 2016, celebrating David Welker and the conclusion of his Subconscious Narratives exhibit.

For more information and to order tickets, visit WelkerShow.com. Don't delay; only a limited number of tickets will be available, and this is sure to be an amazing party, going deep into the Welker subconscious!

Finally, The Mockingbird Foundation will be participating in the PhanArt Skyscraper is Grand Art Show on 1/2/16 at the Hotel Penn. We will have new jerseys featuring art from David Welker and AJ Masthay, art prints from the upcoming The Phish Companion 3rd Edition, and rare print variants for sale. Watch this space for more information, and visit the show page on Facebook.

The Mockingbird Foundation wants to thank the artists, collectors, promoters and fans who make up the fan art community for your unwavering support, and for bringing more beauty into our world and scene. We hope to see you in NYC!

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Hungerthon is an annual Thanksgiving radio tradition started in 1975 by WhyHunger to raise awareness about hunger and poverty and to invest in long-term solutions that help people in need in communities across America. To support this important cause, Phish has generously donated a pair of tickets for the four-show NYE run to the Hungerthon Charity Auction. While you're getting stuffed this fine Thanksgiving day, why not satisfy your hunger for New Year's tickets and bid generously.

Several other Phish-related charity auctions are currently underway at Charitybuzz, so check these out and bid high while doing good:

• Trey has donated a pair of Phish tickets and pre-show party passes for the 1/1/16 MSG show, to benefit the David Lynch Foundation.
• Win a lunch with RLM Manager Patrick Jordan (who manages Phish, Trey, Ween and more), to benefit HeadCount.
• Win a lunch with SiriusXM Jam On host Jonathan Schwartz (host of Gone Phishin'), to benefit HeadCount.
• Win a lunch with talent buyer Don Strasburg (the force behind Phish's shows at Red Rocks and Dick's), to benefit HeadCount.
• And for the big one...win a lunch with Andy Gadiel, founder of Andy Gadiel's Phish Page, to benefit HeadCount.

These auctions all end soon. You guys know the drill: bid early, bid often, and support some really great causes!

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Regular visitors of our good friends over at PhanArt may have noticed a significant milestone on their charitable donations list: with a $100 donation from Zuckerpinz on May 18th, total donations to The Mockingbird Foundaton by PhanArt and their Friends now tops $10,000. On behalf of all of us here at the Foundation, and in the name of all the grants and programs these donations help us to support (including running Phish.net), we thank PhanArt Pete and the entire PhanArt community for your ongoing generosity.

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