More good news from ReMarkable Arts in Bridlington!
Big rewards through Arts Awards! Another good news story from Music4U and ReMarkable Arts...
Music4U
Music4U is a key strand within the National Centre for Early Music's creative learning and participation programme, which seeks to build a more musically inclusive England. Music4U reaches across York, Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire and provides musical engagement and development opportunities for young people aged 0-25, particularly targeting those whose life circumstances make it difficult for them to otherwise access musical learning. The current Music4U project has developed from fourteen years of experience as a Youth Music Action Zone and subsequently a Musical Inclusion provider.
ReMarkable Arts
ReMarkable Arts is a key delivery partner of the Music4U programme, providing instrumental and vocal development and ensemble opportunities to young people across the East Riding. Recently, ReMarkable Arts has been developing links in some of the more coastally isolated and economically deprived part of the region, to increase access to positive musical activity for young people living in these challenging circumstances.
The good news – Louis’ story
During Summer 2016, ReMarkable Arts ran a series of Arts Award focused music sessions, catering for 12 participants between the ages of 7 and 12. One of these was nine-year-old Louis*.
Louis has hypermobility which inhibits his movement capacity and has also contributed towards a lack of confidence. When he first entered the room, he was painfully shy, hiding behind his Mum, close to tears and not wanting to stay. We were told that “doing something like this was completely out of his comfort zone – a room full of strangers!” With the support of ReMarkable’s friendly music leaders, Louis was encouraged to stay and join in with a fun, musical warm-up activity – working surreptitiously as an icebreaker, allowing participants to get to know each other and feel comfortable together. This immediately put Louis (and the others!) at ease and he was soon engrossed in the workshops.
Workshop leader, Mark Howley told us: “Louis was thoroughly engaged, showing fantastic concentration skills… and he ended up winning some of the rhythmic games, to his delight! He was so proud of this achievement and it was the first thing he shared with his Mum when she came to meet him. Given that Louis’ condition means he struggles with co-ordination and physical tasks it was clear that this was a real victory for him”.
Over the course of the workshops, Louis’ confidence soared and he took part in every task, including performing in front of his peers. On the final day, his Mum told us how much he had enjoyed the workshops and that he wanted to do more music-making with ReMarkable in the future. “By the end of the workshops Louis had made friends and fitted well in to the group helping his social skills. Louis also took great pride in completing his [Arts Award] log book. He took his time and was extremely creative about it”.
Louis will be returning to Music4U and ReMarkable’s projects in Autumn 2016, in preparation for involvement in regional rock showcase, Let’s Rock 2017.
* names have been changed for safeguarding purposes.