Blackboard Music Project

Priorities

- Audience development

- Capacity building: Training and education

Project description

There is currently no formal education for producers, musicians or organizers working in the field of Young Audience music productions despite the growth within the field in Europe and generally throughout the developed world. In order to provide YA music work with an identity of its own, there was a necessity for a common name and a set of 'ground rules' by which society can understand it – we call it Blackboard Music Project.

Why Blackboard Music?

The supporting arguments for presenting high quality concerts far children in schools are numerous:

1. Access to creative stimulation. Giving children and youth the opportunity to experience music in a first-hand is often an eye-opener for facets of taste and culture that most young people were unaware of before connecting with the music live.

2. Arts Education. The exposure to Art in general offers a range of advantages in that it stimulates alternative ways of using cognition; improving the ability to experiment, to research and to express oneself ln new and innovat1ve ways.

3. Democratic understanding. Considering the amount of quality music available, lt can be presumed a human right to have access to it,  especially ln the early years of a person's life. The access to culture as a right in itself is emphasized ln the UN Convention for Children's Rights, article 31.

In order to meet the four areas mentioned above, the BbMP focuses on:

• Creating and strengthening a relevant and well-functioning communication platform and network far YA/BbM organizers and experts.
• Capacity Building: strengthening the competences and capacity of producers, musicians and organizers across Europe in the field of BbM to better address their target groups.
• Audience development (see below)
• Reinforcing European awareness among producers, musicians and organizers of BbM by focusing on cultural differences as well as universal means in reaching target audience.
• Presenting BbM productions in countries other than that of their country of origin.
• Developing new models of music communication to young audiences through linking the best of qualities from all parties involved.
• Investing ln sustainable practices that ensure the lasting impactofthe activities by collecting existing knowledge,evaluatin gand channeling it into a European 'best practice' toolkit for producers and all working within the field.
• To identify areas in which research projects could be developed e.g. the possible national differences in the reception of music(school concerts)ofthe young audiences etc.

Project objective

Audience development is naturally integrated ln the overall aim of the project to increase the quantity as well as the quality of concerts far young audiences in the participating countries, as well as improve the possibilities for the exchange of concerts between the European countries/regions". Audience development in BbMP will thus be approached  from two angles: 1) with the aim of widening the target audience, 2) with the aim of deepening the relationship with the target audience. In both cases the focus on networking, capacity building and the Formal education of producers  and  organizers in the field is a strategy enabling the producers and the organizers to be the gateway to reaching the millions of school children around Europe.

Producer is the most prominent figure as the mediator between the artist and the target audience. As earlier described, the producer has expert knowledge in the musical as well as the educational world, and it is his/her job to use this knowledge to help the artists reach their audience. Key words in connection with reaching the target audience for instance are recognition and interaction.

Gained experience

Since 2016, Jeunesses Musicales Croatia has organized a workshop for musicians, producers, managers and organizers of concerts for young audiences.

The workshop is intended for everyone who works and works in the field of the development of young audiences, whether they are musicians, producers, managers, educators or organizers! This workshop is extremely useful for the promotion of artistic and pedagogical knowledge related to the presentation of music to a young audience.

There is currently no formal education for producers, musicians and organizers working in the field of music production for the younger audience. The foundation of the project is the "learning-working" approach where the chosen ensemble works with one or more experts at the program-production part of the concert intended for the young audience.

The project should open new paths towards achieving the goals of building greater capacity and raising public-focused initiatives if those who financing, recognize JMC as an expert organization for the development of young audiences. Audience  development is naturally integrated into the overall project goal - to increase the quality of concerts for the younger audience as well as to increase the possibility of exchanging concerts between European countries.

So far they have participated in the workshops of Katarina Krpan, Lucija Stanojević, String Quartet Porin, Ilin Dime Dimovski, Selma Pustički, Canta etc.