Drake Music partner, Coventry Music talk musical inclusion and recruiting Disabled music leaders

We are pleased to share a new guest blog from our partner at Coventry Music, Hub Lead, Mark Steele. He shares some crucial insights into the inclusion journey, what access and inclusion really means and how to put it into action. 

Throughout Lockdown, the Think22 team at Drake Music were working with their partners Coventry Music, THAMES and Newham Music to continue online delivery, mentoring of hub tutors and the preparation of an exciting and ambitious year 3 of the programme. Newham Music saw the continuation of mentoring in an online capacity, with Bea Hubble and Dav Shiel working with the tutors to keep Newham inclusive during lockdown, developing the tutors' skills and creating a shared picture of inclusive practice. THAMES tutors and Drake Music Associate Musicians were delighted to be able to continue co-delivering their inclusive ensemble, Soundbox, for Term 3. The group took part in the Hub's end of year concert, with a contribution called 'Cooking with Sounds' which you can view from around 10 minutes in here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyi31AY6m0U&t=4s 

Looking ahead to the Autumn term for Think22, there is a strong focus on 'showing the doing', where through our Coms. we will be displaying how our work with the Hubs as an example of putting inclusion into action, being open about the inclusion journey and our challenges and learnings along the way. We are starting the year off with a joint training day for Newham and THAMES tutors including  a Social Model Training from artist Kris Halpin, and mentoring kick-off session. Throughout Term 1 we will be mentoring the hub tutors remotely and working with Hub Leads on organisational development.

We hope you enjoy our blog from Mark Steele, Coventry Music Hub Lead!