ARTISTS from CULTURALLY DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS

“There aren’t enough musicians from culturally diverse backgrounds in the North West who are interested and equipped to work in participatory music programmes”

Over the past 4 years this has regularly been stated as we have tried to set up school programmes, book musicians for training events and community projects. What is the issue? Is it true across the art forms?

In two Creative Partnerships projects produced by More Music the key enquiry question asked about the different experience young people and staff had when the culturally significant work was delivered by an artists from a relevant background. We discovered that the questions asked of the artists were deeper and more meaningful and that the memory of the project lasted longer. We believe that it is vital to try and shift the ground.  

Currently we are running an extensive R&D project with employers and artists in the Northwest and would like to know what the situation is in other regions.

What musicians do you employ who have non UK cultural roots? How much is this an issue for you ? What are you doing to address this? 

Please get back to me at More Music or just post some stuff in here!