HAAM's First Permanent Home Coming Soon

The Robin and Bud Shivers HAAM Head Quarters is moving closer and closer to opening its doors. HAAM’s first permanent home is specifically designed and configured to meet needs of musicians, staff, and stakeholders featuring private and public collaborative spaces, a musicians’ resource center for internet and technology access, and an intimate performance spaces to showcase local music. The 7,314 square foot Head Quarters will serve as a central navigation hub to support musicians achieving their best healthcare outcomes, and signal HAAM’s commitment to the community for years to come.

Since Robin Shivers founded HAAM in 2005, more and more musicians enroll in HAAM services every year, HAAM HQ will build capacity in people, space, and resources that will help us address the growing needs of local musicians for years to come by:

  1. Expand to serve the growing number of musicians in need. We have outgrown our current space and cannot continue to expand without investing in the proper infrastructure to support our clients. The expanded physical footprint of our new space will allow us to add additional focused, compassionate program staff to enroll new musicians.

  2. Provide additional services such as a musician resource hub, a hearing screening room, access to computers and Wi-Fi, as well as space for musician education and wellness trainings.

  3. Provide enough stability to help Austin musicians lay permanent roots in our community. Simply put, the “Live Music Capital of the World” needs a dedicated space built specifically to meet the health and well-being of musicians and their families. Such a place will concentrate our focus on supporting the personal lives of professional musicians. In doing so, we will help musicians stay here—living and playing—within our expensive city limits.

  4. Support the longevity of our mission through real estate stability and an appreciating asset. HAAM is fortunate to have had the incredible support of generous partners in the community, such as Gary Keller and Ascension Seton, both of whom provided HAAM low-cost centers of operations over the past 16 years. But HAAM’s growth is outgrowing our partners’ philanthropy, and the board and leadership of HAAM have committed to a permanent home to sustain our mission for the future. Ownership of our building (a first in the organization’s history) will secure a long- term appreciating asset and support our long-term financial stability by avoiding the high costs of current and future rents. Our goal is to ensure that our financial resources remain focused on program delivery while minimizing overhead costs.

  5. Honor the privacy and dignity of our clients. The planned space will provide private access to medical care support in a warm and inviting musician-centered hub accessible to all.

To read more about the project, or to find out way you can support please visit myhaam.org/bring-haam-home.

Marc Fort