Music for social impact: practitioners' contexts, work, and beliefs
Lead Research Organisation:
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Department Name: Research and Enterprise
Abstract
How we best understand the role of arts in the rapidly changing society is a question that continues to preoccupy public discourse worldwide. There is a tension between "art for art's sake", where the intrinsic properties of art are seen to deliver unique inherent value, and "art for non-artistic outcomes", highlighting wider benefits art can deliver, such as economic, health, and social welfare improvements. Within the world of music particularly strong claims have been made for its inherent "universal power" to bring personal or social benefits. A countervailing view is that there is nothing universal about the effects that music can achieve. Rather, to reliably achieve impact, the content and presentation of musical activity must be carefully adjusted according to the context and the intended outcome.
These tensions have influenced a growing body of participatory music-making activities being offered to groups around the world defined by their social needs or deprivation, work which focusses on marginalised or excluded groups (in regions of poverty, conflict, or social disruption, including refugees and migrants, people in prison, homeless people, etc.). These Socially Impactful Music Making (SIMM) Activities assist people to generate artistically valued musical outputs (performances) while also helping them to achieve defined social goals (such as inclusion, empowerment, community building, activism). As SIMM activities generally employ professional musicians as facilitator-trainers, the outcomes therefore reflect what these practitioners do in their sessions, the skills, beliefs and motivations they bring to their work, and the conditions and constraints under which they operate.
Little is formally known about these practitioners, however. Existing research is dominated by case studies of individual projects, or clusters of projects inspired by a single model. SIMM is a field in which grandiose claims are made for the social benefits of musical engagement, and where critical, including self-critical, practitioner perspectives are put in second place. Declining public resource for the arts adds to the pressure to "tell the best stories" rather than critically reflect on practice. As a result, understanding of the complexities of such work is frequently constrained and opportunities to identify problems and propose solutions are limited. To understand the value of SIMM activities and their potential, we must interrogate who is involved, and why.
This project will provide an integrative cross-cultural analysis of the field as a whole from the perspective of the practitioners who deliver the work, undertaking a systematic in-depth analysis of SIMM practitioners, and how their backgrounds, training, and beliefs affect the way they carry out their work and assess and improve its effectiveness. Through in-depth interviews and case studies of organisations or projects across four countries (Belgium, Finland, the UK, Columbia), this project will uncover the characteristics of the SIMM practitioner. Country selection reflects locations with relevant practice to investigate, with different cultural and political contexts for SIMM, offering insights into local versus global factors.
Practitioners' own understanding of the actual social impact of their work will be examined, identifying factors which help or hinder this appreciation. Through a context-sensitive understanding of incentives and pressures experienced by practitioners, this research will provide insights for training (how to support the development of resilient but reflective practitioners), commissioning and funding (how to support monitoring and evaluation which allows for, and learns from, experimentation and failure), and the creative development of best practice (through enhanced opportunities and frameworks for interprofessional knowledge exchange).
These tensions have influenced a growing body of participatory music-making activities being offered to groups around the world defined by their social needs or deprivation, work which focusses on marginalised or excluded groups (in regions of poverty, conflict, or social disruption, including refugees and migrants, people in prison, homeless people, etc.). These Socially Impactful Music Making (SIMM) Activities assist people to generate artistically valued musical outputs (performances) while also helping them to achieve defined social goals (such as inclusion, empowerment, community building, activism). As SIMM activities generally employ professional musicians as facilitator-trainers, the outcomes therefore reflect what these practitioners do in their sessions, the skills, beliefs and motivations they bring to their work, and the conditions and constraints under which they operate.
Little is formally known about these practitioners, however. Existing research is dominated by case studies of individual projects, or clusters of projects inspired by a single model. SIMM is a field in which grandiose claims are made for the social benefits of musical engagement, and where critical, including self-critical, practitioner perspectives are put in second place. Declining public resource for the arts adds to the pressure to "tell the best stories" rather than critically reflect on practice. As a result, understanding of the complexities of such work is frequently constrained and opportunities to identify problems and propose solutions are limited. To understand the value of SIMM activities and their potential, we must interrogate who is involved, and why.
This project will provide an integrative cross-cultural analysis of the field as a whole from the perspective of the practitioners who deliver the work, undertaking a systematic in-depth analysis of SIMM practitioners, and how their backgrounds, training, and beliefs affect the way they carry out their work and assess and improve its effectiveness. Through in-depth interviews and case studies of organisations or projects across four countries (Belgium, Finland, the UK, Columbia), this project will uncover the characteristics of the SIMM practitioner. Country selection reflects locations with relevant practice to investigate, with different cultural and political contexts for SIMM, offering insights into local versus global factors.
Practitioners' own understanding of the actual social impact of their work will be examined, identifying factors which help or hinder this appreciation. Through a context-sensitive understanding of incentives and pressures experienced by practitioners, this research will provide insights for training (how to support the development of resilient but reflective practitioners), commissioning and funding (how to support monitoring and evaluation which allows for, and learns from, experimentation and failure), and the creative development of best practice (through enhanced opportunities and frameworks for interprofessional knowledge exchange).
Planned Impact
Project Impact will be on those most engaged with the development of SIMM activities: practitioners, funders, and trainers, informing them of the outcomes of the project and engaging with them to craft the project and interpret the results and its implications. Public understanding of SIMM activities will be raised, including their potential and limitations.
Practitioners: The field of practice is relatively new, and practitioners often operated in relative isolation, resulting in a heterogenous and locally inflected patchwork, hampered by lack of access to organised reflective knowledge about the field as a whole. This project will provide them with a systematic and articulated account of practice in different locations and settings, coupled with curated opportunities to reflect, with peers, on the implications for their own practice. The project will contribute towards the knowledge base and associated knowledge exchange that is essential for the establishment and maintenance of an effective and recognised professional practice. SIMM is not yet at this stage, and this project will catalyse moves to fully professionalise this field.
Commissioners and funders: Although some of the larger commissioners and funders undertake or commission evaluations of the programmes and projects they support, these often focus quite narrowly on measurable social outcomes for recipients/participants. Declining funding also generates an environment of only telling "good news" stories. By providing stakeholders with a deeper understanding of the potential, and limitations, of the skills and approaches that musicians bring to their SIMM work, and situating this understanding within a broad, globally inclusive perspective on how this emerging professional field is taking shape, this project will reframe how these bodies evaluate the work they fund. New insights are expected into how commissioning organisations can create working environments where reflective articulation of what went wrong is as valued as inspirational success stories. These stakeholders will be represented in the advisory group of the project, and in practice-oriented workshops in each of the countries studied.
Training Organisations: Training of professional musicians takes place largely in institutions that prepare artists for the concert platform and the recording studio (conservatoires/music schools). Pedagogic programmes that prioritise the skills and approaches required for effective SIMM work are in their infancy, and there is an urgent need for curriculum models which take greater account of the specific environments and approaches which SIMM work entails, the problems it encounters, and the skills needed to deliver it. Teachers can and should bring their own personal professional experience to bear on their students' development, but the outcomes of this project will allow such experience to be globally contextualised through an emerging understanding of good practice in this field, and the beliefs and skill sets which characterise this practice. The investigators are situated within training institutions, so the research will feed directly into the redevelopment of curriculum for the SIMM practitioner, informing the training field as a whole.
Public Understanding: The topic of the social impact of arts projects has significant public interest, and abiding media attention. A simplistic narrative of "the power of music" dominates public awareness, and we will work with practitioners and advisers to encourage media commentators to enrich this narrative, highlighting the variety in types and purpose of SIMM intervention, and how context, skill and intention can substantively help or hinder the delivery of impact. Shifting the public discourse from "Music is inherently a powerful agent of social change" towards "Music can assist social change when delivered in the right time and in the right way" will be a useful corrective to uncritical hype.
Practitioners: The field of practice is relatively new, and practitioners often operated in relative isolation, resulting in a heterogenous and locally inflected patchwork, hampered by lack of access to organised reflective knowledge about the field as a whole. This project will provide them with a systematic and articulated account of practice in different locations and settings, coupled with curated opportunities to reflect, with peers, on the implications for their own practice. The project will contribute towards the knowledge base and associated knowledge exchange that is essential for the establishment and maintenance of an effective and recognised professional practice. SIMM is not yet at this stage, and this project will catalyse moves to fully professionalise this field.
Commissioners and funders: Although some of the larger commissioners and funders undertake or commission evaluations of the programmes and projects they support, these often focus quite narrowly on measurable social outcomes for recipients/participants. Declining funding also generates an environment of only telling "good news" stories. By providing stakeholders with a deeper understanding of the potential, and limitations, of the skills and approaches that musicians bring to their SIMM work, and situating this understanding within a broad, globally inclusive perspective on how this emerging professional field is taking shape, this project will reframe how these bodies evaluate the work they fund. New insights are expected into how commissioning organisations can create working environments where reflective articulation of what went wrong is as valued as inspirational success stories. These stakeholders will be represented in the advisory group of the project, and in practice-oriented workshops in each of the countries studied.
Training Organisations: Training of professional musicians takes place largely in institutions that prepare artists for the concert platform and the recording studio (conservatoires/music schools). Pedagogic programmes that prioritise the skills and approaches required for effective SIMM work are in their infancy, and there is an urgent need for curriculum models which take greater account of the specific environments and approaches which SIMM work entails, the problems it encounters, and the skills needed to deliver it. Teachers can and should bring their own personal professional experience to bear on their students' development, but the outcomes of this project will allow such experience to be globally contextualised through an emerging understanding of good practice in this field, and the beliefs and skill sets which characterise this practice. The investigators are situated within training institutions, so the research will feed directly into the redevelopment of curriculum for the SIMM practitioner, informing the training field as a whole.
Public Understanding: The topic of the social impact of arts projects has significant public interest, and abiding media attention. A simplistic narrative of "the power of music" dominates public awareness, and we will work with practitioners and advisers to encourage media commentators to enrich this narrative, highlighting the variety in types and purpose of SIMM intervention, and how context, skill and intention can substantively help or hinder the delivery of impact. Shifting the public discourse from "Music is inherently a powerful agent of social change" towards "Music can assist social change when delivered in the right time and in the right way" will be a useful corrective to uncritical hype.
Publications
J A Sloboda
(2020)
Music for Social Impact: an overview of context, policy and activity in four countries, Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK
in Finnish Journal of Music Education
Juan Sebastian Rojas E.
(2021)
The SIMM field in Colombia: Grassroots and national approaches
Van Zijl A
(2023)
Layers and dynamics of social impact: Musicians' perspectives on participatory music activities
in Musicae Scientiae
Westerlund H
(2024)
The protean music career as a sociopolitical orientation: The mutually integrated, non-hierarchical work values of socially engaged musicians
in Musicae Scientiae
Description | OVERVIEW The project undertook a systematic in depth analysis of musicians undertaking socially engaged practice in four countries - Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK - exploring how their backgrounds, training, and beliefs affect the way they carry out their work and assess and improve its effectiveness. Practitioners' own understanding of the social impact of their work was a key focus. An extensive written survey was completed by 318 practitioners, from among whom 88 participated in individual in depth interviews (21 in Belgium; 23 in Colombia; 20 in Finland; 24 in the UK). Almost the entire study was conducted under pandemic restrictions which severely limited opportunities for originally planned on-site visits or direct observation of current practice. The focus of the study was more on recent practice, and the longer term development of each musician's individual practice over the career lifetime. Primary data-gathering and analysis was in-country, in the respective vernacular languages (Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Spanish, Swedish). For data integrity and cultural sensitivity most analysis and dissemination was conducted in-country in the vernacular language, but supplemented by outputs which included selected comparisons between countries. Where possible, outputs with international reach have been produced in both English and Spanish (as the project languages with the greatest numbers of speakers/readers worldwide). A dual-language project repository website is in an advanced state of development for launch in summer 2024. The size of the project and the amount of data it generated means that some material is still being analysed and written up for later dissemination, and therefore new findings will emerge over time. All findings referred to in this report will be referenced in more detail in repository website content, which comprises spoken presentations, meeting and practitioner-focused reports as well as academic journal articles. Because of the distributed multi-country nature of the project, this report organises findings by country, with a final integrative section detailing comparisons between countries. Countries are given in alphabetic order. BELGIUM The field is perceived as 'in development' (not established); most organisations are small or medium, there are not large organisations engaging in this work. Musicians very often combine a role as musical leader with the role of organiser of the activities, and report that this is a heavy burden. There is not enough support from public funding, musicians work for low pay or even do the job on a voluntary basis. Musicians report they don't feel completely equipped for the work, and need more training. A large majority of musicians (95%) state that they find this work important or essential to them as musicians. 'Social impact' is seen as much more complex than input leading to output; rather it is understood by musician-practitioners as layered and dynamic, involving musicians' intentions, the core aspects of their practice, and the perceived effects of their practice. There is seen to be a clear set of competences and skills needed to be a good practitioner in the field, largely aligning with existing literature, but a new finding is the importance of 'learning by doing' in the training path for musicians, which has implications for higher music education programs. COLOMBIA The research findings raised key questions and concepts around the multiple roles that Colombia's practitioners take as leaders of socially engaged projects. This particular issue raised new research ideas about the complexity of challenges that practitioners have to bear and the skills they need to develop to achieve their musical and social goals. In particular, we found that where projects involve different traditional musics from Colombia, practitioners need to take account of the direct impact in their local culture, local production chains and cultural economies. Consequently, national and local governments need to foster these music practices with a special focus on cultural diversity and epistemic and intercultural dialogue around music education. From the practitioners' perspective, we found that there is a crucial need for tools and knowledge leading to effective cooperation across different sectors (Academia, Government, Private and Civil Organizations) and across diverse territories (meaning practitioners and other stakeholders from diverse places in Colombia that could have different practices, goals, interests and overall music cultures that determines the characteristics and constraints for developing successful SiMM projects). Interviews with practitioners about their perceptions of the affordances of music revealed three broad categories: (1) discipline/correction/ordering; (2) self-expression; and (3) organisation/action. The first of these is the dominant one in this field in Colombia, in that it prevails in most of the large programmes, but there are two question marks over it: first, discipline is a problematic focus for socially oriented music education; and second, music education as social ordering is a colonialist ideology. However, the interviews reveal the presence of solutions as well as problems within this sector. Alternative ways of thinking and working, centred on the affordances of self-expression and organisation/action, do exist, but they are somewhat marginal at present. FINLAND Socially engaged practice has been going on for a long time among Finnish musicians but mostly in a voluntary form (e.g. prisons, hospitals, old age homes). Several interviewees had started their practice this way. Currently social practice is developing toward a professional specialisation or a job (one-year training in community music at several universities of applied sciences, an association of community musicians, etc.). Nevertheless, the people who responded to the survey did not form a homogenous, self-conscious sub-industry or field of music, but were in part ignorant of each other and the recent developments. Neither did they necessarily identify with any of the common titles used for the practice (community music, socially engaged practice, etc.). The ethical dimension emerged as central when musicians were asked about the skills and training demands: you can never conceive yourself as totally prepared for the practice. One thing that was common among most of the survey respondents was that they were interested in following relevant research and utilising it selectively in their practice; quite many were also somehow involved in research themselves (some in the field of music, while others in, e.g., social and health disciplines. This also explained their motivation to respond to the survey in the first place. In the interviews, Finnish musicians rather talked about their social intentions than the expected or observed social impact of their work. Those interviewees who worked in connection to public social and health services were more accustomed to the idea of planning and evidencing social impact. However, musicians usually worked on short-term contracts or projects, or gig-based, and rarely had the chance to observe or gain feedback of any lasting effects of their work. It needs to be noted that only half of the Finnish interviewees had a HME degree, and some interviewees did not have any formal training in music at all. Those musicians in particular who had higher music education degree had developed a high level of critical reflexivity about the dominant music industry and professional education in music. Their counter stories are valuable for higher music education as they were about the system and its problems as well as socially engaged practices in relation to the dominant music and music education systems. In the interviews, socially engaged practices are also seen to 'correct' some of the past failures and present exclusions of the state-funded music systems in Finland. Participants renounced the hierarchy between intrinsic (autonomy, creativity, variety, achievement, challenge, and intellectual stimulation) and social work values (interacting with people, altruism, and contribution to society), and found participatory practice to be artistically freeing and personally rewarding. Their work appeared less driven by extrinsic values (economic gain and status); hence, their self-directed and values-driven orientation resonates strongly with the notion of the protean career. Although their sociopolitical stance involved the risk of weakening their professional status and they had to constantly justify their work amongst their colleagues, they all expressed conscious counternarratives to what they considered the elitism of expert culture in traditional music institutions. UK Socially engaged practice is supported in a broad range of contexts and locations, presenting as an established and embedded professional ecology in which funding agencies prioritise the support of socially engaged projects. in line with prevailing national policies for the arts and culture which emphasise inclusion. The typical practice context is a small-to-medium sized organisation or project focused on specific participant groups and needs, in which young people and people with different types of disability figure particularly strongly. The ways in which musicians develop capabilities for participatory music making practice and go on to do the work are varied. These can be characterised as differing pathways to practice encompassing formal and informal training and programmes, apprenticeships and self-directed learning/development (developing their craft by practising) reflective of the nuances, contexts and situations of practice. Several practitioners approach this work as a critical practice through the appraising and re appraising of what constitutes 'right', avoiding stagnant practice, disrupting acontextual applications of activities and processes, and upholding the work as a disruptive counter hegemonic act. Several Higher Education Institutions have offered specialist courses focused on such practice. Most respondents had received some specific training for their socially engaged work, although this generally followed after a more generic undergraduate education, mainly in conservatoires and university music departments, and often grew out of (or because a supplementary activity to) a more standard performing and teaching career. Some UK practitioners embody hybrid or diasporic identities, have a migration background or come from ethnic minority groups. Some are part of majority groups who have experienced ethno-cultural diversity in some way, either abroad or in a superdiverse domestic context, particularly following the recent refugee reception crisis. This experience provides these practitioners with new perspectives, strategies and skills to carry out their practice, as well as forming the basis for a new awareness and system of values, making them well placed to challenge cultural hegemonies. COMPARATIVE FINDINGS In contrast to the European countries in the study, where practice is concentrated in small and medium-sized organisations, a dominant feature of the Colombian ecology is a small number of very large organisational providers, offering El Sistema-inspired participatory orchestral projects, each involving thousands of young people. This creates a somewhat more stable context for some practitioners, and a consequently high level of participation in formal training for the work. This is because most of the public investment related to this kind of projects actually goes to big national reach projects that use El Sistema-based models? And this public policy usually contains training programs for practitioners and it also becomes a source of job stability for them which limits or at least conditions possible research or initiatives with a critical approach to assess the impact of these programs. In contrast, Belgian participants had the lowest level of preparation for the work, reflecting the relatively early stage of development of this type of work. Despite such country differences, there were significant commonalities across all four countries. Alongside social, cultural, political, economic and other interests typically associated with the work, practitioners emphasised musical motivations. These clustered into three main themes: 1) disrupting and reclaiming musical cultures, 2) shaping musical selves, and 3) states that emerge in and through the practice. A comparison of Belgian and UK practitioners discovered commonalities in the ways in which practitioners prepare/d for their participatory practice, and the skills, competencies, knowledge and attitudes they deem necessary for effective practice. Interviews revealed that expertise broadly lies in 3 interrelated domains - musical, pedagogical and social. These domains of expertise are nuanced in relation to the practice context and those participating. Therefore preparation by doing (learning by doing) is important. Furthermore, whilst the work is often described as fluid and responsive, preparation is required for responsible working with (often marginalised) others. While international comparisons revealed underlying commonalities of practice and motivation, within country contrasts were also telling. For instance, many smaller projects in Colombia are trying to revitalise or support traditional musics within particular localities and ethnic groups, and to restore or retain this music as a constituent element of society. This is reflective of the multi-ethnic and post-colonial context which is unique to Colombia, as is the focus on artistic activity which addresses post-conflict reconstruction after a 40-year history of major internal conflict. |
Exploitation Route | See narrative impact |
Sectors | Creative Economy Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/music-for-social-impact |
Description | This is the first narrative impact statement on a project that formally ended on 31 March 2023. Initial impacts reported here can be expected to develop and expand in the coming years. As an example of multidisciplinary and cultural dialogue within the research process itself this was a developmental experience for research team members which will inform their future approach to interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research. Because of the distributed multi-country nature of the project, with country-specific as well as international impacts this report organises impacts by country, with a final integrative section detailing comparisons between countries. Countries are given in alphabetic order. BELGIUM Project activities and outputs have gained new recognition and visibility for this field of practice which is normally not well reported or visible in public debate and the media. With academic attention comes recognition, as attested by the public events oriented towards people outside academia, which were always well attended by many people. At these events, researchers were asked many questions by practitioners and leaders and this has led in some cases to continued contact from practitioners who confirmed that they gained a lot relevant to their practice, and requested access to further project and related materials. Academic insights from this project have led to concrete initiatives to strengthen the field of practice. For example, the Academic Chair Jonet at the University of Ghent has organised practice-based training for musicians in the field, and this initiative was taken on the basis of the results of the project survey, which show that Belgian practitioners often don't have the feeling they are totally equipped for the job and they want more training. So this is a very concrete outcome in the field based on project data analysis. The establishment of the academic Chair Jonet/CESAMM itself in 2022 (https://www.cesamm.eu/nl/wie-we-zijn/) was stimulated by this research. The research project gave rise to the Ghent University's awareness and willingness to host this academic chair. In terms of impact, this guarantees ongoing academic attention for the research topic, beyond the duration of the MFSI research topic. COLOMBIA The results of this project are feeding into a current national debate about the social impact of participatory music practices, and in different forums project team members are laying on the table the relevance of music cultural diversity in these practices and the issues raised through practitioners' perspectives that could result in discriminatory and exclusive practices. In response to these concerns, Colombia's government is reforming their current policy on how to foster music practices to achieve social change. Two examples are given: A column by a project team member in the local press explaining the main concerns about the initial government National Music Project and why there was a need to rethink and remake this policy by organising participatory roundtables with key stakeholders. https://www.lasillavacia.com/red-de-expertos/red-social/un-sistema-nacional-de-las-artes-con-verdades-unicas-pero-diverso/ A team-member's paper in the 1st International Forum on Music, Conflict and Community where we presented the main MFSI project findings regarding Colombian context and the discussion about this National Music Project that was going on from late 2022 to the first half of 2023 https://facartes.uniandes.edu.co/evento/primer-foro-internacional-musica-conflicto-y-comunidad-2023-1/ This project helped to consolidate a research stream on participatory music practices within a UNESCO Chair that will continue developing studies on this topic. The results of the project are being used to design of a new postgraduate program for socially engaged practitioners. The project's prominence in the Colombian context has enabled the project team to launch a new edited book project "Música y Transformación Social en Colombia" (Music and social change in Colombia) which will include 4 chapters from Colombia's project team. FINLAND Finnish team members were invited to speak at the conference Turning Social organised by the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW) in June 2023. In January 2024 the team submitted an article "Transforming Higher Music Education: Systems Learning through Counter-Stories of Finnish Socially Engaged Musicians", based on the presentation, to be included in a collection of articles published by MDW. The book is called Turning Social. On the Social-Transformative Potential of Music Education, and it is edited by Dr Axel Petri-Preis and Prof. Annette Ziegenmeyer. Petri-Preis was one of the invited guest speakers in the dissemination event of the Finnish sub-project in March 2023. In other words, new connections between researchers and practitioners of socially engaged music in Europe were also formed as part of the project. Impact has occurred at the level of the Sibelius-Academy, the only music university in Finland: raising discussion about the purpose of the HME system, opening up toward societal issues and responsibility, questioning traditional talent-centred and talent-seeking models, hyper-specialisation, etc. It may take years before the project's impact on HME takes effect, born out of the combined force of related endeavours that have taken place during the last decade or so. The project seminar in March 2023 involved the leadership of the Classical Music Department. The project has helped to raise awareness of the value base of socially engaged music practice in Finland, noting also the musical interest in participatory music making and the pleasures musicians themselves gain from it (versus the belief that social practice is carried out for the purpose of earning income, as part of a portfolio of skills that may be capitalised). UK In planning and delivering the practitioner-oriented UK day-seminar (March 2023) the project team formed a productive alliance with two significant professional associations that coordinate and support organisations and individuals delivering socially engaged artistic practice, and dialoguw with government and funders on better support for this type of work. These organisations are: The Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) and London Arts and Health (LAH). The event provided an important opportunity to engage representatives of key national arts funders with the findings and implications of the research. Representatives of Arts Council England and Youth Music participated in a roundtable to review the results and their implications for funding and support policy. The report of the day will be co-promoted hy CHWA and LAH in conjunction with the launch of a public project website designed to engage practitioner and policy communities as well as the research community. The project's inauguration was the catalyst for the formation and launch in 2020 of Guildhall School's Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts. This is a major institution-wide forum for the co-ordination and stimulation of new research in this area, and the development of research-informed practice. It now has over 30 members and is a nexus for researchers, teachers and practitioners, within the school as well as externally. The enhancement of the School's research staffing through the funding provided by this project has led to a greater capacity to support and advise other staff within the School to develop research projects, and establish research collaborations both nationally and internationally. Some of these have led to major new grant-funded projects. The success of the project allowed the appointment in February 2024 of the School's first full-time Lecturer in Socially Engaged Arts Practice, to consolidate and build on the achievements of the Institute's first three years, during which this project was its most significant grant-funded activity. INTERNATIONAL A presentation of project outcomes by team members at the 8th International SIMM-posium on Music For Social Impact in Meanjin, Brisbane, sparked debate amongst senior leading community music scholars about the political and ethical imperatives around locating socially engaged practice and its training in conservatoires around the world. The prominence of the research project (and its personnel) within the international SIMM research platform (www.simm-platform.eu) has been one of the major catalysts for the proposal of a long-term strategic alliance between the Guildhall School of Music and the academic Chair Jonet/CESAMM of the University of Ghent (https://www.cesamm.eu/nl/wie-we-zijn/). This alliance will focus specifically on the mutual support of research training in the area of socially engaged practice, including co-supervision and exchange of research students. |
First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Policy & public services |
Description | "Being Close without Being Close". Affective Challenges in Participatory Music Practices. December 14, 2022 (London, SIMMposium) Presentation with Dr. Anemone van Zijl; |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | This presentation & theme was part of the interview data analysis. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.simm-platform.eu/simmposia/simm-posium-7/ |
Description | "Dialogue and invited responses to Insights from Music for Social Impact: Practitioners' contexts, work and beliefs". Workshop with event attendees to invite response to the research at Music for Social Impact: Future directions for practitioners and the field, London, 1 March, 2023. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A workshop following the morning research presentations at this 1-day event hosted by Guildhall School of Music and Drama together with the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance & London Arts and Health. The workshop discussions were documented and will contribute to an industry-facing report that will be shared by event partners and attendees with their constituencies as a 'call to change' for the field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | "Disrupting and Reclaiming: Qualities and sensibilities of participatory practice for musicians in Belgium, Colombia, Finland and the UK". Presentation with Julián Castro-Cifuentes, Dr Sari Karttunen & Dr Anemone van Zijl at the 7thannual SIMMposium. London 12-14 December 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A 3-day hybrid research symposium at Guildhall School and via Zoom. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | "Insights from Music for Social Impact: Practitioners' contexts, work and beliefs". Presentation at Music for Social Impact: Future directions for practitioners and the field, London 1 March 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A one-day event hosted by Guildhall School of Music and Drama together with the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance & London Arts and Health. This event; • shared insights from Music for Social Impact; a three-year international research project exploring musician experiences of working in participatory practice. • brought together a range of stakeholders working in/for/with/through participatory music-making. • included an interactive workshop to explore key issues for the field. * included presentations and panel discussions from Prof. John Sloboda and Dr Jo Gibson, and 5 representatives from practice, policy, and funding. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | "Pathways to effective and ethical practice: Perspectives from musicians that lead participatory music-making activities in the UK". Presentation with Prof. John Sloboda at the 7th annual SIMMposium. London 12-14 December 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A 3-day hybrid research symposium held at Guildhall School and via Zoom. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | "Socially engaged practice: Exploring pathways to effective and ethical participatory music-making". Presentation a University of Edinburgh research seminar. Edinburgh 26 January 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A research seminar at Edinburgh University attended by a group of 18 PhD researchers, postdocs and 2 supervisors. A wonderful opportunity to support community music and music education PhD researchers to reflect on their own research processes and music-making with community groups in connection to presentation of Music for Social Impact findings, alongside enriching my own perspectives and further exploration of the data. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | "The social impact of making music (SIMM) in Colombia: Meanings and practices in a postcolonial Latin American nation" / Talk at the Research Seminar Series, Department of Music, University of Sheffield. April 23, 2021. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | This talk, aimed at expanding on the research argument made at the 5th SIMM-Posium (Session 7th - March 2, 2021), but backed by new data that has emerged from the data collection activities from the Colombia side of the MFSI project (Phases A and B). The talk was conducted online through U. Sheffield's Blackboard platform and 80 people attended the event, most of which belong to U. Sheffield's Department of Music community, although scholars from other UK universities and from other countries in Europe also attended the talk. The event is going to be uploaded online, for permanent reference and consultation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/music/research/research-seminars |
Description | 3 day-Research Seminar (facilitator). Title of the Seminar: "Social and cultural actions of musicians - Enhancing the dialogue between practitioners and researchers"; Organized by Fondation Royaumont, SIMM, Philharmonie de Paris; 30 October-1 November 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The seminar "Social and cultural actions of musicians - Enhancing the dialogue between practitioners and researchers", welcomed a group of selected post-graduate students, early-career researchers and a group of selected musicians-practitioners - who are all involved (or interested to be involved) in ongoing research on the role of music in social and community work. The 3-day seminar was facilitated by myself, Filip Verneert & Lukas Pairon. During the 3 day- seminar we exchanged knowledge and views on doing research in and with this field of practice, both from the perspective of an external academic researcher, a participant-researcher and a musician who is involved in the practice but not as a researcher. Topics discussed are methodologies for doing research, aims of the research, definition and understandings of terms (eg. 'social impact'), theoretical frameworks in particular topic-fields (eg Music in detention), intentions and experiences of musicians engaged in this field of practice,... |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://www.simm-platform.eu/seminars/simm-seminar-3-royaumont-2021/ |
Description | A presentation titled Transforming higher music education: Systems learning through counternarratives of Finnish socially engaged musicians with Professor Heidi Westerlund, at the seminar Turning Social. On the Social-Transformative Potential of Music Mediation, organised by mdw wien. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Discussion about the varying values and aims of socially engaged musicians in different European countries, and the skills demands of musicians wishing to enter the field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | http://www.mdw.ac.at/turningsocial/ |
Description | Chapter of the radio show "Qué está PAZ-Ando" from the Research Center of Peace Studies at District University from Bogotá, Colombia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This radio show was a conversation about the context, conditions and possibilities for practitioners and other stakeholders for the development of SIMM projects in Colombia. This episode was broadcasted in national radio and online streaming on the 28th of september 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://laud.udistrital.edu.co/nosotros/programacion/que-esta-paz-ando?page=1 |
Description | Conference presentation "Researching music and societal impact: the importance of political awareness", paper for 6 SIMM-Posium, Paris, 2 November 2021, together with Dr. Juan Sebastian Rojas |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This paper was given as part of a panel session put together with Dr. Geoff Baker, Dr. Sari Kartunen, Dr. Juan Sebastian Rojas and Dr. Graça Mota. Panel name: "SIMM research: methods, politics, and ethics". The panel discussion was facilitated by Prof. John Sloboda. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://pad.philharmoniedeparis.fr/colloque-the-social-and-cultural-commitment-of-the-musician.aspx |
Description | Conference presentation 'Sosiaalisesti sitoutuneen työn motiivit ja merkitykset muusikoille' (The motives and meanings of socially engaged work for musicians). The 2021 Finnish Conference of Cultural Studies, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The aim was to present the research project and my sub-topic to the Finnish music scholars and receive comments from them. The working group 'The Joy of Music' turned out be interrnational and I continued discussion on happiness studies via email with a Canadian reseacher. The working group was dedicated to music research and many of the speakers were music practitioners themselves. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://kulttuurintutkimus.fi/en/finnish-conference-of-cultural-studies/ |
Description | Conference presentation 'The Meaningfulness and Value-Orientation of Artistic Work: The Case of Socially Engaged Musicians', at the 15th ESA conference, Barcelona (online) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The research project gained publicity among European sociologists of art and I received good comments on how to continue with the analysis. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.europeansociology.org/esa-conference-2021-in-barcelona |
Description | Conference presentation; 'Social impact': a wolf in sheep's clothing', the 6th SIMM-Posium, Philharmonie de Paris (online participation). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The presentation was part of a panel session 'SIMM research: methods, politics, and ethics' in which the other speakers were Dr. Geoff Baker, Dr. Juan Sebastian Rojas E., and Dr. Graça Mota. The panel received many questions and comments from the audience and caused lively discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://pad.philharmoniedeparis.fr/colloque-the-social-and-cultural-commitment-of-the-musician.aspx |
Description | Educating musicians for SIMM practices: Ethical implications and some considerations for music higher education. 8th annual SIMM-posium, Meanjin (Brisbane), Nov 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | International conference about the social impact of music-making (SIMM). Reflection on the differences between practices in Europe and Oceania and what that might mean for future directions of SIMM work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/@8thSIMM-posium |
Description | Education for socially engaged musicians. What is needed and what can higher music education do? Presentation with dr. Jo Gibson. "ResearchWorks", Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London January 30 2023. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | This was a presentation of an initial analysis of the theme, in the Belgian & UK Survey and Interview data. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Impacto social de hacer música: Presentation at Bogotá event for practitioners |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at Bogotá event for practitioners |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Member of Scientific Committee of SIMMposium #5 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Selection of participants for nine weekly sessions with talks, panel discussion, and Q and A's on the Social Impact of Making Music and participating in sessions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.bozar.be/en/activities/170871-simm-posium-5 |
Description | Music for Social Impact: Future directions for practitioners and the fieldMusic for Social Impact: Future directions for practitioners and the field |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An opening presentation setting the scene for this event which was A one-day event hosted by Guildhall School of Music and Drama together with the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance & London Arts and Health. This event: Shared insights from Music for Social Impact; a three-year international research project exploring musician experiences of working in participatory practice; Brought together a range of stakeholders working in/for/with/through participatory music-making; Included an interactive workshop which explored key issues for the field. A report of the workshop is in preparation (as of March 15th 2023) for wide sectoral dissemination. The day included presentations from the project's UK researchers, Prof. John Sloboda, Dr Jo Gibson, ?as well as invited responses and discussion from a panel of speakers (Jide Ashimi, RawMaterial; Richard Ings, Arts Council England; Minoti Parikh, Independent Consultant Dance Practitioner and Researcher with Victoria Hume, Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance; Carol Reid, Youth Music) and was visually minuted by www.morethanminutes.co.uk |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/music-for-social-impact-future-directions-for-practitioners-and-the-f... |
Description | Music for Social Impact: A dip into music genres and styles as considered by UK practitioners. Presentation at SIMM Seminar No.5. London 5 September 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 20 socially engaged music practitioners from different countries attended a 4-day intensive seminar dedicated to exploring socially engaged music making (including styles and genre) at Guildhall School, alongside exploring possibilities for practice-research for deeper insights for the field. This sparked much critical reflection and generated ideas for future inquiry. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Music for social impact: practitioners' contexts, work and beliefs?: Setting the scene. Presentation at 7th SIMMpoisum. London 12-14 December |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The SIMMposium is the main annual meeting of www.simm-platform.eu. designed for knowledge exchange and networking among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The London meeting - the 7th annual SIMMposium was attended in person by over 100 people from all round the world, and a similar number joined sessions remotely by livestreaming. This event was the first time that the entire project team was represented, and there were presentations from each member of the research team past and present. There was strong representation from the pedagogical and management staff at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, which will be one of the Institutions to take account of the research findings in their further development of training routes for socially engaged practitioners. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://www.simm-platform.eu/simmposia/simm-posium-7 |
Description | Music for social transformation in Colombia. Achievements and challenges in the 21st century. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Guest talk at the Europa Chair from Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla (Colombia). Guest country: United Kingdom. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://issuu.com/uninortecolombia/docs/oci-0203_mp_ce21_nueva_programaci_n-final?e=10123124/8800509... |
Description | On the Social Impact of Participatory Music Activities: Musicians' Perspectives |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Research presentation at the conference "Psychology & Music: Interdisciplinary Encounters", Belgrade October 26-29 2022. The audience were mainly researchers and postgraduate students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://psychologyandmusicconference.wordpress.com/home/ |
Description | Opponent at PhD defence of thesis entitled 'Exploring the potential of special music education in child development' by E. Dumont, at Maastricht University, The Netherlands, on the 10th of February 2021. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was one out of 6 highly esteemed opponents seated in the Corona of the PhD defence of the thesis entitled 'Exploring the potential of special music education in child development: A case study of special music education in The Netherlands' by E. Dumont, on the 10th of February 2021, at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. The defence was attended by music education practitioners and students of the Maastricht Conservatory of Music, among others. The event was featured on the front page of the regional newspaper. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/events/online-phd-conferral-mrs-elisabeth-dumont |
Description | Organisation of the dissemination event of the Finnish sub-subject in Helsinki |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Members of project group, European invited speakers (keynote by François Matarasso), staff of the hosting institution and research participants had a chance to meet and discuss the project findings and their importance with regard to higher music education. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.uniarts.fi/tapahtumat/the-social-turn-and-implications-for-higher-music-education/ |
Description | Practitioners workshop (Facilitator) "Routes for cooperation" at practitioner dissemination event in Bogotá, Colombia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a practitioners oriented workshop aiming to develop cooperation skills at intersectorial and interterritorial levels. They had the opportunity to work with professionals from the public sector and talk to NGO and other civil organization members about routes for develop sustainable SIMM projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Practitioners' event Belgium -'Music for Social Impact': dissemination research results (different presentations from the research team) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This Conference day ("Playground: social impact of music", December 7 2022) took place in Ha'Concerts Ghent (Belgium) and as a full day of dissemination lectures and workshops to discuss our research results with the practitioners in the field (of study). We started with a keynote lecture by Gillian Howel (AU), followed by a presentation of the survey results, and afterwards we organised 2 workshops for practitioners starting from the results of the interview analyses. Musical moments were also included in the program (active music making & listening). I gave an overview and background to the entire project, explaining how the Belgian part of the research fitted within the overall project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.playgroundproject.eu |
Description | Practitioners' event Belgium -'Music for Social Impact': dissemination research results (different presentations from the research team) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This Conference day ("Playground: social impact of music", December 7 2022) took place in Ha'Concerts Ghent (Belgium) and as a full day of dissemination lectures and workshops to discuss our research results with the practitioners in the field (of study). We started with a keynote lecture by Gillian Howel (AU), followed by a presentation of the survey results, and afterwards we organised 2 workshops for practitioners starting from the results of the interview analyses. Musical moments were also included in the program (active music making & listening). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.playgroundproject.eu |
Description | Presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 10 practitioners involved in social work related areas and in the education of social work attended the presentation, followed by a discussion on how this research could be applied in education. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Presentation Música para el Impacto Social: Un estudio comparativo internacional sobre ?músicos facilitadores at at practitioner dissemination event in Bogotá, Colombia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | John Sloboda. Música para el Impacto Social: Un estudio comparativo internacional sobre músicos facilitadores. Contextualising overview of entire study, to allow a Colombian audience to appreciate the scope of the study of which the Colombian research was a part. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://agencia.udistrital.edu.co/evento/seminario-internacional-ipazud-20-anos-catedra-unesco-en-ar... |
Description | Presentation "A portfolio or a protean career path? Musicians' work values in social practice in the context of Finland" with Professor Heidi Westerlund at the 7th SIMMposium, London, 12-14 December, 2022. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The SIMMposium is the main annual meeting of www.simm-platform.eu. designed for knowledge exchange and networking among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The London meeting, the 7th annual SIMMposium, was attended in person by over 100 people from all round the world, and a similar number joined sessions remotely by livestreaming. This event was the first time that the entire project team was represented, and there were presentations from each member of the research team past and present. There was strong representation from the pedagogical and management staff at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, which will be one of the Institutions to take account of the research findings in their further development of training routes for socially engaged practitioners. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://www.simm-platform.eu/simmposia/simm-posium-7 |
Description | Presentation "Activists, Leaders, Artists, Educators? Music and Social Transformation in Colombia" at the 7th SiMMposium in London, United Kingdom |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Paper with the main findings from Colombia in the MFSI project |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://www.simm-platform.eu/simmposia/simm-posium-7/ |
Description | Presentation "Education for Participatory Music-Making: Perspectives from Practitioners in the Field" with Dr Jo Gibson at the seminar "Social Turn and Implications for Higher Music Education", the dissemination event of the Finnish sub-project in "Music for Social Impact", Helsinki Music Centre, March 8, 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The seminar "Social Turn and Implications for Higher Music Education" was targeted at the change needed in the HME study programmes as well as in the attitudes and practices at music universities. The seminar took place at the Helsinki Music Center. First professor Heidi Westerlund and I gave a brief introduction to the Music for Social Impact project. The keynote lecture "The Restless Art of Co-creation: Learning from the Traction Project" was given by François Matarasso from the UK. His talk was followed by a joint presentation by me and Dr Jo Gibson about the findings of the Music for Social Impact project in Finland and the UK with regard to education and preparation for socially engaged practice. After a break, Dr Axel Petri-Preis presented the new study programme "Musik im Dialog" at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The seminar ended in a panel that was composed of two Sibelius Academy professors, Finnish socially engaged musicians, Dr Axel Petri-Preis and professor Geoffrey Baker who takes part in the Colombian team in the Music for Social Impact project. The panel was led by Professor Westerlund. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.uniarts.fi/tapahtumat/the-social-turn-and-implications-for-higher-music-education/ |
Description | Presentation "Música y transformación social en Colombia" at practitioner dissemination event in Bogotá, Colombia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Paper with partial results from the MFSI project in Colombia. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://agencia.udistrital.edu.co/evento/seminario-internacional-ipazud-20-anos-catedra-unesco-en-ar... |
Description | Presentation Musicians' Social Practice: A Job or a Calling? in a session at the European Sociological Association/Research Network Sociology of the Arts Midterm Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The presentation was given in a music-related session that was attended by some 30 researchers and students, many of which are art practioners themselves, and sparked many questions, comments and comparisons. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.soc.lu.se/evenemang/sociology-conference-arts-movement |
Description | Presentation of the project Music for Social Impact as part of one-day lecture seminar on community art for MA-level visual art students |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Introduction of the Music for Impact project provided important comparison opportunities for practicing community artists in visual art who were studying for an MA degree. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Research Seminar at the Royal Northern College of Music |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This was a livestreamed on March 17th 2021 and permanently available contribution to the Royal Nothern College of Music's Research Forum series, a public service series open to the general public and free of charge. Title and abstract are given. MUSIC FOR SOCIAL IMPACT: AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MUSICIAN PRACTITIONERS John Sloboda and Alessandro Mazzola, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London Who are the musicians who work in socially engaged music projects and what informs their practice? This presentation will outline the aims and scope of a 3-year AHRC-funded study (see:https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/about_the_school/research/funded_research_projects/music_for_social_impact/), and present findings from a initial documentary scoping of the field (in four countries, Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK), along with preliminary UK data from an online survey of practitioners. We will discuss next steps and challenges for the work, and open a discussion of how findings from research such as this may assist the further development of reflective practice. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xYG6BZ1Ss&t=41s |
Description | SIMM-posium #7: London (12-14.12.2022) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The presentation sparked questions and discussion. I was invited to publish the paper presented in a Special Issue afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.simm-platform.eu/simmposia/simm-posium-7/ |
Description | Skills and competencies of musicians in participatory music activities |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A public lecture for musicians/practitioners in the field; showing the results of the analysis on the topic 'skills & competencies', with the UK and Belgian dataset.The lecture was 45 minutes; afterwards some of these skills and competencies were illustrated by workshops led by musicians. In this last part 3 professional participatory music organisations took the lead. The lecture was given by An De bisschop and Jo Gibson, on February 2 in Ghent (Belgium). 75 people attended the day. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://www.cesamm.eu/nl/publiek-debat/ |
Description | Social action, decolonization, and music in Colombia: Collective practices, narratives of equality, and the armed conflict. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The presentation sparked questions and discussion. Two colleagues contacted me afterwards to continue the discussion and potential future collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://www.simm-platform.eu/simmposia/simm-posium-7/ |
Description | University-wide research meeting. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Institutional research meeting at Juan N Corpas University in Colombia to disseminate research output produced by the diverse schools of the university. Presentation was a poster presentation and was awarded 1st prize in its category (posters). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | With Dr. An De Bisschop: "Researching music and societal impact: the importance of political awareness", paper for 6 SIMM-Posium. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This paper was given as part of a panel session put together with Dr. Geoff Baker, Dr. Sari Kartunen, and Dr. Graça Mota. Panel name: "SIMM research: methods, politics, and ethics". |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://pad.philharmoniedeparis.fr/colloque-the-social-and-cultural-commitment-of-the-musician.aspx |