Sound Sense celebrating 20 years of supporting community musicians
Summary: |
Sound Sense is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the best way it knows; through activities to support and develop community musicians |
Date Posted: |
22 Feb 2011 |
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Happy birthday to us! writes Sound Sense chair Catherine Pestano. Sound Sense celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Twenty years which have seen great changes in community music – and community musicians. We’re no longer the outsiders, and a minority activity. We have gained recognition among a wide range of government departments, and ministers. We’ve helped to create new models of music education for young people, through our work on the Music Manifesto.
Most importantly, I think we’ve done all that and much more with no loss of the core values that make a community musician: the sense of inclusion, the emphasis on creativity, and the key characteristic that community music tells a story: the story of the participants that make the music that we facilitate.
I’m proud to be chair of Sound Sense at this moment in our history, when we can look back on so many successes – some of which we’ll be reporting in future issues of Sounding Board over this year. I’m even more pleased that we’ll be able to continue our work into the future. We can’t be hit by forthcoming cuts in public spending – because we don’t receive any public funding for our core work. As long as our members want us to continue doing our twin jobs of making the case for community music and supporting the professional development of community musicians, we will be around: here’s to the next 20 years!
How are we going to celebrate? In the best way we know, by holding our famous area gatherings: 90% of attenders say these have changed the way they work. The first of these was on 16 April in Winchester. And the topic? How could it be anything other than "inclusion in community music".
Final events Come and help Sound Sense celebrate its 20th anniversary year at either SO What: SOcial pedagogy, SOcial media and SOcialising! All in Birmingham on 12 March read more>>. Or High tech to homespun: three parallel strands - digital, low tech, reflective discussions. London, 24 March read more>>
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