Plenary conference

The Creative Imperative: Participatory Music-Making as a Platform for Social Change.

 This intervention will explore how a collaborative approach to music-making in a variety of social settings can enable participants to become an integral part of creative processes and outcomes, through a collectively owned and inclusively led experience.  Critical to this is the role of the ‘portfolio practitioner’ musician (performer, composer, teacher and leader) as an Innovator (explorer, creator, risk taker), Collaborator (e.g. with other sectors/art forms), Partner/co-operator (within formal partnerships), Connector (in relation to different contexts) and Reflective Practitioner (research and evaluation).

During this presentation and participatory conversation we will consider the following questions:

• What action can be taken to ensure that the next generation of musicians have the artistic strength, vision and motivation to create a world in which engaging in the arts enhances the quality of people’s lives?
• What action needs to be taken to bring socially engaged artists in from the margins to a more central strategic position in the cultural field?
• In what way can cultural and higher education institutions be activated to produce a socially engaged workforce that responds creatively and responsibly to the diverse challenges of a world in constant flux?

Biography

Sean Gregory is responsible for developing and delivering a range of innovation, research & knowledge exchange and wider lifelong learning programmes, across the Barbican Centre and Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Alongside working as a composer, performer and creative producer, he has led collaborative arts projects for all ages and abilities in association with many British and international orchestras, opera companies, theatres, galleries and arts education organisations.

Sean has held a number of roles at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama, including Director of Creative Learning, Head of the Centre for Creative and Professional Practice and Head of Professional Development. He set up and ran the Guildhall Connect programme which won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2005 for its pioneering music leadership and creative ensemble activity with young people in East London.