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We hope you are settling happily into the new year.
2015 was a busy year at Music for Change and we wanted to take
this opportunity to share some of the highlights with you:
Margate Tales and Tunes
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, we engaged
around 50 young people from an area of deprivation in Margate,
Kent in the summer. Staff took children on day-trips to exciting
heritage locations across the town. We were welcomed by staff at
the newly opened heritage theme park Dreamland, the Turner
Contemporary, the Shell Grotto, the Theatre Royal, the Tudor
House, Margate Museum and the Tom Thumb Theatre. Music for
Change's collaborating artists Kevin Davidson and
Usifu Jalloh led workshops in songwriting and music-making,
helping the children write songs about Margate's
heritage.  The project gave
children the opportunity to visit places that they had previously
not been able to, due to lack of opportunity or
financial barriers. Participants were from diverse
communities, including young people from Slovakia, the Czech
Republic, Lithuania, Russia the Roma community and the UK. By
engaging diverse groups, we helped young people to socialise and
to make new friends.
Porchlight Music Groups
In July 2015, Music for Change started a year-long
programme of weekly music-making
and songwriting sessions for Canterbury-based charity,
Porchlight. Porchlight supports people who are homeless,
vulnerable, or at risk of becoming homeless. We are running one
weekly group in Canterbury and one in Dover. Sessions are led by
talented Music for Change artists, Lucky Moyo and Emily Watts.
Here's what a service user had to say about the sessions: "I found that my
confidence has improved through playing music and singing and
getting involved with other people and communicating." We would like to thank
Awards for All England and County Councillor Martin Vye for
funding the project.
Folkestone Music Events
From August to the end of October 2015, Music for
Change delivered an exciting programme of music events in
Folkestone, Kent. We programmed 18 days of music
performances and workshops and all activity was free to
audiences. We delivered 3 weekends of activities with
Folkestone's Quarterhouse venue and held world music and dance
workshops as part of their Outlands Festival. The other 15 days
of music took place at Folkestone's newly re-opened Harbour
Arm. We presented a varied programme of excellent performers;
in total, 35 bands and 5 interactive workshops. High quality
musicians and performers included Family Atlantica, Namvula,
U'Zambezi, Melodions Steel Pan Band and King Size Slim.
Composed: Moving On Up - Skillnet
In September we completed our two year project with
Skillnet CIC; working with young people in challenging
circumstances, supporting them to gain skills in the planning
delivery and leading of music workshops. Under the guidance of
Lucky Moyo, Kevin Davidson and Oliver Seager, young people
with learning difficulties and young people who are at risk of
becoming homeless facilitated workshops at primary and secondary
schools and colleges in Canterbury. To read a young person's
account of the project and the difference it has made to his
confidence, click HERE.
We continue our work with partner charity Music In
Detention, using music to improve the emotional well-being
of immigration detainees, to build wider understanding of detainees
and to create lasting connections between them and people living
near detention centres. We facilitated music workshops in
the following IRCs: The Verne, Campsfield House,
Harmondsworth, Dover and the last music workshop at Haslar before
it closed. We ran three community exchanges including two
at West London YMCA & Harmondsworth IRC. You can find out
more about these projects and listen to the music created HERE
and HERE. Just before the closure of Dover IRC we ran a
community exchange with detainees at Dover and participants at
Porchlight which lead to a performance on Saturday 13 June for
the launch of the Refugee Tales walk, organised by Gatwick
Detainee Welfare Group. You can read more about the project and
listen to the music HERE.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you
for your support in 2015 and we look forward to working with you
in 2016.
We are already busy taking bookings for this year.
Read below to find out more about key events coming up next year,
for which you can invite Music for Change to your school or
community group. Our talented team of artists can tailor
workshops to meet your specific needs.
Please call our friendly office team on 01227 459
243 to find out more or make a booking. Alternatively you can
fill in the online booking form here.
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National
Storytelling Week
30 January -
6 February 2016
 The Society for Storytelling's 16th annual
National Storytelling Week will take place
from Saturday January 30th to Saturday February
6th 2016. Music for Change have a range of storytellers from
different cultural backgrounds available to book for your pupils
or community group to explore this traditional and exciting
artform. To see a list of all our storytellers, click here.
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Chinese New
Year
8 February
2016
Find out about the traditions, customs and stories
linked to the celebration of Chinese New Year in one of the
following workshops and performances:
 Chinese
traditional & contemporary dance workshops/ performances- Chinese traditional
& contemporary storytelling and ribbon dance
workshops/ performances
- Chinese circus
skills workshops / performances
- Chinese magic
performances
- Origami workshops
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Fairtrade Fortnight
29 February - 13 March 2016
Fairtrade Fortnight is an opportunity to explore
what it means to be Fairtrade. Looking at themes including
sustainability, trade for farmers and workers in the developing
world and where our food and products come from, our interactive
workshops are both educational and creative, engaging pupils of
all ages.
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World Book
Day
3 March 2016
World Book Day is a celebration of authors,
illustrators, books and reading. World Book Day is marked in more
than 100 countries all over the world, so why not bring reading
alive with one of our storytelling workshops? You can choose from
Caribbean storytelling, Indian storytelling, West African
storytelling, Chinese storytelling and Southern African
storytelling. To see a list of all our artists, visit the artists
and workshops page here.
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International
Women's Day
8 March 2016
Celebrate International Women's Day with a workshop
from one of Music for Change's international artists such as
T?a Hodzic (Southern European vocal workshops) or Black
Voices (Afro-Caribbean, R'n'B, Gospel and blues vocal workshops)
and explore women's rights in history and today. For more
information about our female artists, go to our website here.
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World Poetry
Day
21 March
2016
 World Poetry Day is
an invitation to reflect on the power of language and the
impact and history of the art-form across the globe.
Our
poetry workshops encourage creative development in
participants and include:
- Spoken word
- Poetry writing
- Poetry slam
- Performance poetry
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