Arts Award in the community

Soundcastle's story of integrating Arts Award Explore into community family music-making.

 

In 2014 Soundcastle offered Arts Award Explore as an optional extra element to our family community project Musical Beacons, in Tower Hamlets. The project is based in a community centre in a social housing estate, and families with children of all ages attend weekly sessions to write their own music inspired by their local area and identity. We offered Arts Award initially as a way to encourage participants to attend every week, and therefore be able to recognise and celebrate their progress and achievements. Nine young people between the ages of 5 and 10 took up this opportunity, and committed to staying an extra half an hour after the sessions each week for one term. During this extra time we facilitated extension activities, such as opportunities to interview professional musicians, and allowed time for reflection and documenting of their work in the main sessions to build the Arts Award portfolio.

 

Inspire

The first stages of the Explore award involve young people participating in a variety of activities, in order to discover and identify what inspires them. Our selection included trying new instruments such as keyboards, ukuleles and iPads, storytelling through music, and writing our own ceilidh style music and dance. These were things that everyone at the project took part in together. The Arts Award element came in supporting the young people, especially the under 7’s, to articulate what had inspired them.  We found it helpful to break this down into simple ideas:

What inspires you:

Did it make you feel excited?

Did it give you lots of ideas?

Do you want to do it again?

 

This dialogue between Rebecca, age 5, and a Soundcastle facilitator, shows how she came to understand her own inspiration:

Rebecca: “The drums inspire me.”

Facilitator: “What inspires you about the drums?”

Rebecca: “When they go fast and low, they go quiet and loud, and they’re also my favourite instrument.”

Facilitator: “How do they make you feel?”

Rebecca: “Excited and happy.”

Facilitator: “Would you like to play in other places?”

Rebecca: “Yes, in the Olympic Park, with my Dad.”

 

Explore

Each week we had a performance from a guest musician, who was then interviewed by the Arts Awardees about their careers and art forms. The highlight was a visit from members of musical theatre company Showstopper, who take ideas from the audience and spontaneously improvise a show. The following week our team of young people made a film explaining the process and modelling it themselves, with huge enthusiasm!

“Showstopper was amazing since we shouted out a word and they made a performance from our word.” Ben, Arts Awardee, age 10

“My favourite thing that inspired me was Emily playing the violin because I play the violin in school and I can learn more!” Tanya, Arts Awardee, age 10

“Guest musicians and performers bridged the gap and helped link Musical Beacons to the music world. They (the participants) loved asking questions and understanding the wider musical world.” Soundcastle facilitator

 

Create

Over several weeks the Arts Awardees worked in teams in the main music sessions (also involving parents and children not taking the award) to compose their own piece of music. They chose the musical structure and the instruments they wished to use and wrote lyrics. Each week they wrote and drew pictures to document their creative process, so that they could see how their ideas grew into fully-formed songs. We taught the singing parts to the whole participant group, so that at the end everyone could perform and celebrate the music together.

“The best bit was showing our music to other people.” Khalima, Arts Awardee, age 8

 

A Positive Journey

 

The Arts Award journey gave our team of young people a tangible and motivating way to progress and develop their music-making, and celebrate their achievements. However there was also many other benefits to this experience:

• Learning and inspiration – through meeting other musicians and exploring different instruments, young people began to understand the wider musical world and consider their own future within it.
•  Building a team spirit – working together in the extended session each week gave them a feeling of being part of something special. Some attended the same school, and became friends even across a wide age gap.
•  Encouraging pride in their work – young people enjoyed personalising their logbooks and having them as a document of everything they had done. They felt a strong sense of ownership over their journey and the music they made.

 

We found that the addition of Arts Award enhanced the learning, inspiration and enthusiasm of our participants, offering an exciting pathway within our informal setting. It allowed young people of different backgrounds to progress with their music-making in line with their own interests and identities.

“I like Musical Beacons because it is so fun and interesting. I have learnt so much about instruments, and how to play them, but not only that, I learnt how much fun and exciting life as a musician can be. My friend and me were very glad to be together, throughout the term, playing balafon. We loved making the songs, because we could share ideas with everyone.” Maria, Arts Awardee, age 8.

 

To find out more about Soundcastle's projects in the community, see www.soundcastle.co.uk