An integral part of SoundsCreative’s social mission is to ensure that the musical experiences we run and co-create are as accessible to as many people as possible from all walks of life and musical or ‘non’ musical backgrounds.
With the vision to gather people together through quality arts activities both, collaborative and experiential, we strive to find ways to make sure the doors are open and classes, gigs, workshops are welcoming to all. Of course this is inevitably difficult to counter-balance with sustaining a financially functioning enterprise. Our business model is set up so that part of the enterprise is funded by participant payments to the Neighbourhood Projects and part by the commissioned Conjure your Own Projects.
With the Conjure your Own commissions we aim to work with a range of arts organisations and local authorities who share our vision in bringing arts activities to varied audiences and target groups. With our Neighbourhood Projects we are well aware that as soon as you have to charge for workshops it deceases access for many groups in the community. This is why we are working hard to set up funding links and referral partners for each of our 5 Neighbourhood Projects (Tots Tunes, Tea + a gig, SoundsCreative Ensemble, Vox Voices and Big&small).
Over the last 2 years we have been working in partnership with Islington based charity Music First. Music First has provided funding for 25% of places on our SoundsCreative Ensemble.
We are really pleased to be developing a new partnership with Vortex Foundation, the charity branch of the Vortex jazz club, with whom SoundsCreative has a long-term relationship. Working with Cameron Reynolds on his ‘In the Changes’ project, the initial part of this partnership has funded a series of Tots Tunes ‘On the Move’ sessions, reaching new audiences by running classes in the local Mapeldene Children’s Centre. These have been run in the weeks leading up to the Dalston Children’s Festival when we will run an open Tots Tunes session in Gillett Square which we hope will bring new and old Tots Tunes goers together
In a conversation with Cameron Reynolds he relayed:
“The Vortex Jazz Club is embarking on an exciting new programme called IN THE CHANGES (ITC) that will increase the chances for Hackney communities to take part in some of the incredible art London has to offer.
It is fantastic to be building on our existing partnership with Tara and SoundsCreative as part of ITC. As well as giving both Tara and the Vortex the opportunity to share her exceptional creative activities with a wider audience, it gives us the chance to grow and develop a whole new range of amazing experiences.
Tara's ethos of inclusiveness - bringing people together through fun, creative music making fits the Vortex vision perfectly and is exactly what we need to help us face the growing challenges our community faces in these difficult and divisive times”
This is just the start of this exciting partnership as we work together with Cameron and the foundation to support some of our other Neighbourhood Projects too. Watch this space!
We are on the search for and in conversation with other local organisations so that in 2018 all our Neighbourhood Projects will have 25% of their participant places subsidised. Most importantly we will be working closely with these referral partners to reach those who would most benefit from these creative, social activities.