Access and inclusion | Making Music

Access and inclusion

Scottish Member Meet Up – Library Connections (Edinburgh)

An event for Scottish member groups to meet in person, for peer to peer connections, and to hear from Manager in Scotland, Alison Reeves. We’ll be exploring the support that libraries give to music groups – and what musicians can give back to library communities in return.   

Location

George Washington Browne Room
Central Library George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EG
United Kingdom
GB

Make a statement: Defining your group’s purpose (online event)

Can you describe your group in one sentence? At this practical event we’ll explore what makes a good defining statement, and how you can use it to recruit new members and audiences and inspire your group to work purposefully as a team.  

Location

Online
United Kingdom
GB

Highnotes

In the autumn edition of Highnotes, discover key learnings from our final Big Survey 2022. Get inspired by Soundabout's inclusive project, NewSPAL's campaign to save their music library and the Sitar Music Society's rich musical tradition. Plus, don’t miss our article about Making Music's 90th anniversary.

Diversifying repertoire – research resources

For groups looking to diversify their repertoire, this resource provides some links to online directories and publications to assist your research into under-represented composers.  

Over the past few years, we’ve been talking to members about diversifying their repertoire, and playing more work by under-represented composers. The drivers and benefits of this are various; from addressing the inequity in the classical canon, to finding fresh musical challenges, and connecting with new audiences. Have a look at these case studies: 

Making connections and reaching new people: insights from INCLUDE

The INCLUDE groups used activity that was designed to reach new people and organisations as part of a strategy to widen the diversity of their groups.

Creating musical activities that connect 

Short-term

All four groups planned musical activities with the aim of reaching new people and raising awareness across their whole communities. Large-scale events required money and effort to organise but had the potential to make an impact if the follow-up was right.

Working strategically: insights from INCLUDE

Approaching access and inclusion work strategically helped the INCLUDE groups set realistic goals and embed access and inclusion as key to their whole group’s development.  

Getting people involved

Short-term

The committees of the INCLUDE groups engaged with all their members and got extra people involved with building and delivering their strategy.

Communicating with and welcoming people: insights from INCLUDE

The INCLUDE groups made small changes to the way they welcome and initially interact with new people to improve the accessibility and inclusive feel of their groups. 

Enabling access through information  

Short-term

The groups made changes to the information they provide about coming to their rehearsals and concerts, so it is easier find and helps people understand how to access their activity. They particularly focused on access information for disabled people.

Adapting and developing your group: insights from INCLUDE

The INCLUDE groups made changes to the way they operate their regular activity to make their groups more inclusive, involving their members to ensure that they felt included and changes were well-suited. 

Gathering ideas and opinions

Short-term

The groups involved their members in change, asking people about their experiences and inviting them to be part of decision making. 

INCLUDE: using an action plan to build inclusion

We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make music in their community. This resource is for music groups that want to build a plan for making their group more inclusive.

Music groups often have an aspiration to make sure that everyone who wants to can take part in their activity. 

This might be to:

Defining your music group: how to articulate your purpose to create cohesion and promote inclusion

Across the country, there are thousands of leisure-time music groups that exist for distinct reasons and appeal to different people. This is a great thing, but it means that you need to able to clearly describe who your group is and what it does so that people know what to expect when they interact with you. This resource will cover how and why to produce a ‘definition statement’ for your music group.