Conference Reports
Music in Communities Network conferences are fast becoming the most popular offering of the Network. They are invaluable opportunities to find and build relationships with local community music leaders, to hear some inspirational speakers, to workshop some problems, and share the secrets of their successes.
Most pleasing of all outcomes from our conferences has been the enthusiasm from all involved to meet again. Our vision is for these chapters to form the backbone of the network: connected yet individually placed for local outreach and advocacy, as the very successful Illawarra chapter of the MiCN has been able to achieve.
Many of our presenters are Music in Communities Awards winners. Now in their third year, the Awards identify and reward fine examples of successful and dynamic community music making. The awards have identified “Network Mentors” - community music heroes who now generously share their skills and experience with our members. In 2011 Network members can follow our Mentors’ blogs, which expose the daily trials and tribulations of leaders as they bring projects to fruition. 2011 will also offer live online discussions for direct contact between members and mentors, but most importantly Network members have the opportunity to come and hear from them directly at our MiCN conferences.
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MiCN Conference Melbourne (November 2011)
This article originally appeared in Music Forum (Vol 17 No 2, Autumn 2011) under the heading "Brains Trust for Community Leaders"
Bumped from our original date by the replay of the 2010 AFL grand final, the Melbourne MICN conference, held in the sandstone surrounds of Melbourne University, was presented in partnership with Jonathon Welch’s Social Inclusion Week and the university’s Centre for Music Mind and Well being.
The descriptively titled More than Bums on Seats and Do you really expect to get paid? are two recently released reports from the Australia Council. Its head of research, Dr Nick Herd, opened our Melbourne conference offering some excellent insight into both, with facts and figures to be mined by community music leaders reaching out to funding partners and other stakeholders. The first offers a heartening outlook of positive community attitudes to the arts, high attendance levels but room for improvement in “creative participation”. The second paints a woeful portrait of the income levels of our artists and the other careers many pursue to support their artistic habit.
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MiCN Conference Brisbane (September 2010)
This article originally appeared in Music Forum (Vol 17 No 2, Autumn 2011) under the heading "Brains Trust for Community Leaders"
Early on a Saturday morning, the day before the MCA National Assembly, delegates for the Brisbane Music in Communities Conference gathered in the foyer of the Queensland Conservatorium along with a hundred or so two-and-a-half foot sugar plum fairies, ballerinas from a local school, providing a delightful if slightly surreal start to our conference.
Our group would make its dance with words. We were schoolteachers, leaders of brass bands, choirs, community and youth orchestras and other ensembles, representatives from ABODA and KMEIA. Typically for people in community music, most had not met before. To remind us of what binds us, we started with some actual music from the Redhill and Brookfield Community Choir.
Australia has a world first. The Sound Links research project has given us an invaluable tool for analysing the strengths and growth potential of community music groups. Hearing about it from researcher Dr Brydie-Leigh Bartleet was a great start for the day. Sound Links was a partnership between Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre and MCA. Check it out here!
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