What do you do on Sundays?
I've just been reading Sounding Board, the Sound Sense journal of community music, and was particularly taken with some of the points Mark Bick and Bela Emerson made in their articles "half a cheer for hubs" and "Better together."
When I woke up today it was bright and cold outside with a thick frost. I contemplated the virtues of becoming a vegan as I walked Maurice, wondering what vegans had for breakfast.*
By this afternoon, still cold but now raining heavily, I'd been staring at this screen for about half an hour, trying to understand what exactly it was that I wanted to draw from Mark and Bela's articles that I could write with a positive spin. Saved by the bell! Suzanne Kelly (a friend and colleague who has led quality music provision in Leicestershire for many years) was the excuse I needed to put the kettle on and reach for the biscuits.** Perhaps a little diversion would clear my head.
You know, I believe everything happens for a reason. Suzanne quizzed me about sitting at the computer scratching my head on Sunday afternoon, trying to find a way to draw threads together from Mark and Bela's articles. I told her my dilemma, and expounded on the issues that had given me cause for reflection. It seems the same issues and problems come and go over the years, and if we can't stay positive, disillusionment can set in.
Thinking out loud, Suzanne and I stumbled upon a fun, creative, educational and informative way to address the issues of isolated freelancers, collaborative working and CPD within the hubs, bringing together all partners at all levels to share and learn from each other. Bela's "Brighton Unconference" idea is magnificent in its simplicity, and I urge you to read the article. Based on the open mic idea, everyone comes with something to share, but limited to a short time slot - say up to 5 minutes. (In a recent training session with Paul Griffiths for the NMPAT Musical Inclusion team, a similar task was set, with very little time to decide or plan anything too in-depth or complex.) We had to think in and out of boxes, we had to do things we may not usually do in our practice, work together, learn together, lead and collaborate. If nothing else, we all took away something new to use or discard. Let's not forget, as musicians we are creative, practical, passionate people. We need to retain these qualities and stay true to them within our work, and remind each other of this at every opportunity.
As we know, hubs are made up of many diverse partners. To quote Mark, "... the plan is clear that inclusion is a cross cutting agenda, underpinning all the work of hubs .... there is much progress still to be made in ensuring that the whole workforce operate inclusively ..." From my perspective as a freelancer on the Musical Inclusion team at NMPAT, and also working independently across the East Midlands, we would do well to immerse ourselves in a day, or more, of bringing together all the skills of our musical working communities, which could break down some of the barriers and misconceptions that come from, to quote Mark again, "... hubs not listening to partners and having top-down thinking, driven by limited perspectives ... not many hubs seem to have taken a truly strategic approach to workforce development." If we haven't even met the other partners in our hubs and taken the time to understand who they are, what they do, why they do it, and how we can learn from that, we're missing out on a wealth of opportunity that could inform us all and enable us to widen our perspectives and deliver richer, more collaborative, inclusive music education and experiences from which we would all benefit.
Anyway, enough of all that. If you're wondering why I'm contemplating veganism, do watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30gEiweaAVQ
* I settled for muesli with extra oats, seeds and nuts, but as I only had semi-skimmed milk, I failed.
** As there was cream and various other dubious ingredients in the Fox's biscuits, I feel I may have failed again.