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Institutional Context
Summary
The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is recognised as one of the world’s leading conservatoires, training 880 undergraduate and postgraduate students for careers in the music industry. In addition, the Junior RNCM has over 200 pre-HE learners, 55% of which are supported by bursaries from the Music and Dance Scheme or the College’s own bursary funds. On a yearly basis the RNCM engages with over 7,000 community and school participants through its ambitious and innovative Learning and Participation Programme, while more than 85,000 people attend the institution each year as audience members across its three main public performance spaces. In the Research Excellence Framework exercise 2015, 75% of RNCM’s research was classed as either being world-leading or internationally excellent.
Institutional context
The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is located on Oxford Road, Manchester. It has a total student population of 882 (2018/19), 58% of which are Home and EU undergraduates. Schools of study include Academic Studies, Composition, Conducting, Keyboard Studies, Popular Music, Strings, Vocal Studies and Opera, and Wind Brass and Percussion. It also boasts a thriving Junior RNCM. On a yearly basis the RNCM engages with over 7,000 community and school participants through its innovative Learning and Participation programme, and attracts more than 85,000 audience members across its three public performance spaces.
The RNCM received Gold status in the Teaching Excellence Framework and is a recipient of Institution-Specific Funding. It is the UK’s leading conservatoire for research, scoring 100% for the Impact of its Research (REF 2014). It is also the recipient of two Times Higher Education Awards (for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts and Outstanding International Student Strategy) and a Global Teaching Excellence Spotlight Award, all of which highlight the RNCM’s commitment to ensuring that every student is fully equipped to make a vital contribution to the economy and to society.
The RNCM’s strategic plan 2020-25 ‘Defining the Future of Music’ states that
the RNCM will develop exceptional young musicians with the artistic integrity, creativity and imagination to drive the music profession forward …and ensure music remains relevant to future generations. Not just world-class artists, our graduates will be highly-skilled creative practitioners with a genuine passion and commitment to make a difference, using their skills to enhance the lives of others in society through music’. Embedded in the real-world environment of a busy public-facing performance venue enriched by an unparalleled network of international visiting artists and professional partners, and in an environment informed by the latest world-leading research and scholarship, our students will receive an outstanding learning experience; one which equips them fully for their future careers.
Knowledge Exchange at the RNCM reflects staff and student expertise in Digital, Education, Health & Wellbeing, Musicology and Performance plus high specification equipment and facilities. Recent examples of Knowledge Exchange activity include R&D collaboration with music technology manufacturers, consultancy on leadership techniques, and short courses and summer schools. Recent funding awards have been for the development of students in entrepreneurial training: ‘StART Entrepreneurship’ project (with University Arts London and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) from Research England and the Office of Students for ‘Engaging students in knowledge exchange’. The RNCM was also awarded an E3 Research England grant to expand PRiSM (Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music). The funding supports researchers and practitioners in composition, performance, mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, music perception and big data to engage in creative research collaborations between the sciences and music. Other funders include, UKRI, British Academy, Leverhulme and the European Commission.
For further information, please send queries to research@rncm.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is recognised as one of the world’s leading conservatoires, training 880 students aged 18+ for careers in the music industry.
The Principal at the RNCM, is a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority ‘Cultural Steering Group’. The RNCM’s Local Growth and Regeneration priorities are aligned with the Cultural Steering Group’s report ‘The Greater Manchester Music Review 2019’. The RNCM’s approach is to support young and talented musicians, from any background, and inspire primary and secondary students to the benefits of Higher Education.
Aspect 1: Strategy
The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is located one mile south of Manchester City Centre, on Oxford Road next to the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. Locally the RNCM considers Greater Manchester, including Manchester city region, as strategically relevant. The RNCM strategic plan 2020-25 states ‘We will build on our collaboration with partners in Manchester and the City Region to extend the reach and scale of our impact; identifying opportunities to expand RNCM activities off-site and contributing to the growth of cultural activity and inward investment’1. The RNCM has a total Higher Education (HE) student population of 882 (2018/19), 58% of which are Home and EU undergraduates. In addition, the Junior RNCM has over 200 pre-HE learners, 55% of which are supported by bursaries from the Music and Dance Scheme or the College’s own bursary funds. On a yearly basis the College engages with over 7,000 community and school participants through its ambitious and innovative Learning and Participation Programme, while more than 85,000 people attend the institution each year as audience members across its three main public performance spaces.
Regionally the RNCM considers the North as strategically relevant. The RNCM has very strong partnerships with all the North West professional performing groups – BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé, Manchester Camerata, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Psappha, Opera North and Royal Northern Sinfonia. The RNCM works in a strategic way with them to help to create a more joined-up landscape for the improvement of access to music education across the North of England. Nationally the RNCM is a member of Conservatoires UK, which represents the collective views of eleven UK conservatoires. Conservatoires UK is strongly committed to access and participation and to identifying and implementing targeted interventions to address the specific challenges in the performing arts. Conservatoires UK has been invited to contribute to Arts Council England’s planned work on Diversity and two CUK members, including the RNCM Principal (Chair of CUK), were invited to sit on the Department for Education’s Expert Steering Group, which is developing a model music curriculum for state primary schools. CUK has engaged with Ofsted to encourage the inclusion of performing arts in its new more holistic inspection regime, and with the Russell Group to raise the status of the performing arts at A-level as facilitating subjects for entry to the UK’s prestigious research-intensive universities.
For Local growth and regeneration the RNCM has strategically prioritised widening participation, namely targeted interventions with young and talented musicians, and aspiration raising for pre-tertiary students (particularly primary). ‘The decline of music education in state schools is a major concern for the RNCM, nevertheless its vision is to redefine the conservatoire as a centre for artistic innovation and creativity, inspiring and empowering all of its students, irrespective of their backgrounds to excel, to reach out and transform the lives of others and to lead and shape the music industry of the future’.2
The involvement of the RNCM Principal, the RNCM Deputy Principal, and senior RNCM staff on boards and committees that include Greater Manchester’s Cultural Steering Group, Manchester Engagement Network, the OfS National Collaborative Outreach Programme - Greater Manchester Higher, One Education (Music) and The Greater Manchester Music Education Hub has informed RNCM of the local growth and regeneration needs of Greater Manchester.3 The Greater Manchester Music Review 2019 report makes 10 recommendations, from these (6) Coordinate Music Education Services, (7) Opportunities for Emerging Artists, (8) Inclusive Networking and (9) Reaching Out to Every Corner of the City Region have directly impacted on the RNCM strategic plan 2020-25 ‘Defining the Future of Music’, and the RNCM Access and Participation Plan 2020-2025. 4
Aspect 2: Activity
The focus for the RNCM local growth and regeneration activity is centred on access and eliminating the barriers for underrepresented groups coming to the College. Barriers to musical progression have been well-documented in several major reports on music education published over the last couple of years (reports from the Royal Philharmonic Society (Musical Routes, 2015), ABRSM (Making Music, 2014) and Dr Christina Scharff (Equality and Diversity in the Classical Music Profession, 2015) and more recently Music Education: State of the Nation (ISM, January 2019)). These reports conclude the following:
Children from lower socio-economic groups continue to be significantly disadvantaged compared with peers from more affluent backgrounds.
The cost of learning to play an instrument is a significant barrier to participation in music education and training.
Gender, ethnic and class backgrounds do affect musicians’ ability to access the sector and succeed.
There has been a huge decline in uptake of Music at GCSE and A-level over the past five years.
The majority of the RNCM’s access measures are overseen by the Learning and Participation (L&P) Department. This department focuses on three main types of project with a year-round programme of events for the wider community – those which form a first point of contact; those aimed at general attainment, creating progression pathways and encouraging HE entry; those aimed specifically at RNCM recruitment. All projects seek to address underrepresented groups, in particular, young people from BAME backgrounds, low HE backgrounds, low income households and low engagement areas. The following access projects are designed for children and young people with their families, with a specific focus on primary age from low income and low participation neighbourhoods:
Children’s Opera Project: Each year the Learning and Participation staff bring local primary schools together with a composer and a team of RNCM students to stage a new musical production in the College’s Theatre
Family Days: Family Days offer an opportunity to people of all ages to participate in music-making activities and see current RNCM students in action.
Junior RNCM: Junior RNCM offers a high quality music education experience on Saturdays to approximately 200 students each year. 52% are offered bursaries.
RNCM Mentoring: RNCM bursary students (up to 10 each year) will use their bursary hours to mentor young people from low participation areas.
RNCM Pathfinder: A collaborative scheme to enable talented young musicians aged 8 to 16 to overcome financial, social and cultural barriers to progressing their musical talent. With support from regional Music Education Hubs and professional orchestral partners such as the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
RNCM Young Company: The RNCM’s musical theatre group for young people who have a passion for performance, focused on secondary schools across the North West, with a particular emphasis at present on NCOP schools.
RNCM Young Projects: These are a series of open access workshops for young people aged 6 to 18, learning some of the rarer instruments. The workshops are twice a term and are open to everyone with no charge.
Young Explorers Concerts: These are a series of concerts, three times a year, for families, designed as a first introduction to music and the RNCM.
The RNCM has an internal database for the monitoring of quantitative and qualitative feedback of all access and participation work, and to create a clearer picture of trends in the areas in which it is working, and the outcomes and overall impact of the work. The RNCM reviews allocated spend against each project to assess where budget is most usefully allocated, creating a working method responsive to ongoing data analysis. Evaluation of all Access and Participation projects is undertaken through questionnaires and through verbal and written feedback. The feedback from activities, from any participant - young people, school staff and others - highlights where the RNCM is successful in creating valuable experiences for people, and feeds directly back into the development of future projects and into the strategic monitoring for the new Access and Participation Strategy.
Aspect 3: Results
For 2018/19 activity in all ten Greater Manchester boroughs increased overall by 43.7% on 2017-18. The quotations are testimonies from people who have experienced or reviewed the activities in one way or another.
‘RNCM Engage is a programme of such excellence that it has the potential to make a huge impact on the improvement of music provision and performance not only across Greater Manchester but the entire North West. It is a credit to the College that such an initiative exists, and we hope that this constructive example of creativity will inspire countless students across the country to follow suit and “engage” in the same manner with communities in every corner of the UK!’ Katharine, Duchess of Kent, President Emeritus.
‘Music should be accessible to everyone, regardless of age, health, education or financial situations, and it’s thanks to essential initiatives such as RNCM Engage that it’s proving possible.’ Darren Henley OBE, CEO Arts Council England
120 children from 4 local primary schools worked with a composer, designer and 58 RNCM students to create a new opera, The Hammer of Thor, performed in the RNCM Theatre.
2019/20 – 203 members
146 bursaries totalling £299, 262 (up 11%)
Over recent years Junior RNCM students supported by the Access Fund have gone on to study music at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the RNCM, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Oxford and Cambridge Universities, as well as other top UK universities. During 2019/20 the College provided bursaries to approximately 52% of students at the Junior RNCM — 40 supported by the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS), and 66 by the College itself.
2018/19 - 156 participants (183% increase from 2017/18)
The impact of this programme in a short period has already been strong with three Pathfinder participants having auditioned to attend the Junior RNCM in 2018, and four having now gone on to be part of the Awards for Young Musicians, Furthering Talent Programme. The present cohort includes young people with disabilities, young carers, children in care, those on pupil premium, those attending a Pupil Referral Unit and young people from the BAME community.
‘I just can’t believe how much this has done for E, things like this just don’t happen to people like us. She is such a lucky girl to be a part of all this and I remind her everyday what an opportunity she’s been given.’ RNCM Pathfinder parent
2018/19 - 72 members (27% increase from 2017/18):
37% from BAME backgrounds (up 41%)
79% from low-income households (up 52%)
Young people in RNCM Young Company have gone on to study Performing Arts and related subjects at prestigious institutions, including the RNCM, Mountview, Central School of Speech and Drama, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Northern Ballet School, Royal Ballet School, Guildford School of Acting, University of Birmingham and the University of Cambridge.
‘Before I joined Young Company, I had never heard of the RNCM. The training and performance opportunities are great, and we work with people from lots of different performing arts schools. I have learnt a lot in terms of my singing and acting ability, and also on how to be a confident performer. I am now considering courses to apply for at university and have received lots of advice on colleges, and audition tips. I will be the first person in my family to go to university and being at the RNCM has made me realise that this is what I want to do.’ Young Company member
Young Explorers Concerts
For each event, 100 free tickets are offered to primary schools specifically from low participation neighbourhoods (e.g. Harpurhey and Gorton), all of which are always accepted, showing a strong interest and need.
The Deputy Principal (Performance and Programmes) has overall strategic responsibility for the Access and Participation Plan. The College’s internal Access and Participation Working Group, which is the primary cross-college forum for this work – comprises representatives from Junior RNCM, Creative Professional Practice, Registry and Learning and Participation — analyse data quarterly, and review progress against targets, and the Deputy Principal (Performance and Programmes) reports the outcomes to the College’s Executive Committee on a quarterly basis, and through this Committee to the Board of Governors, who have expressed their strong support for Access and Participation.
For further information, please send queries to research@rncm.ac.uk
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/Strategic-Plan-2020-2025.pdf↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/201920-Access-and-Participation-Plan-1.pdf↩︎
https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/news/greater-manchester-mayor-assembles-steering-group-to-guide-regions-vision-for-culture-heritage/; https://gmhigher.ac.uk/; https://www.oneeducation.co.uk/teaching-and-learning/music; https://gmmusichub.co.uk/↩︎
https://www.ukmusic.org/assets/general/Greater_Manchester_Review.pdf; https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/RNCM-Access-and-Participation-Plan.pdf; https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/Strategic-Plan-2020-2025.pdf↩︎
https://bit.ly/3hooArm↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/study-here/junior-rncm/↩︎
https://bit.ly/3e3nY8A↩︎
https://bit.ly/2C1KtfS↩︎
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
Public and community engagement is embedded into everything the RNCM does as a higher education institution and a cultural venue. In the 2020 Strategy, RNCM Engage was identified as the ‘locus for outreach activity’, as a way to maximise ‘the impact of the College’s work in the community and promote social cohesion and prosperity’.
In the recent 2025 strategy, ‘Society’ is one of three strategic priorities alongside ‘Music’ and Students’. Public and community engagement takes place in all areas of RNCM activity, from Performance and Programming, outreach, the curriculum, to research and knowledge exchange. To achieve our aims, we work closely with community and industry partners in Manchester, the region, as well as nationally and internationally.
Aspect 1: Strategy
RNCM’s strategic plan, ‘Defining the Future of Music,’ establishes ‘Society’ as one of its three pillars.1 It includes ambitious Key Measures of Success for ‘Access and Widening Participation’. The supporting ‘2019/20 Access and Participation Plan’ and ‘Engage Strategy 2018-2021’ identified the need to build on targets set in previous years and adopt a whole institution approach to engagement activity. They outline how the RNCM works closely with community and industry partners in Manchester, the region, as well as nationally and internationally.2
In 2015, the RNCM established RNCM Engage as the ‘locus for outreach activity, maximising the impact of the College’s work in the community and promoting social cohesion and prosperity’.3 The RNCM consulted a community liaison group including representatives from Community Arts Northwest, One Education, Audience Agency and Manchester Libraries to discuss RNCM Engage objectives. Now, chaired by the Deputy Principal (Performance and Programmes), RNCM Engage has brought together activity throughout the college, including learning and participation, young projects, curriculum and professional placements, programming, research and knowledge exchange, setting and creating a coherent and coordinated approach.
For planning public engagement the RNCM defines the ‘public’ in public and community engagement as
Civil Society: Health & Wellbeing based charities, Music Teachers Associations, Music/Arts based charities and trusts
Citizens
Professional Practice: Schools – Teachers, Pupil/Students, HE Education Institutions, Museums & Archives, Music Services, NHS Foundations, Orchestras
Business: Broadcasters, Digital Technology Companies, Live Events & Venues, Music Publishers, Musical Instrument Manufacturers, Recording and Production
Policy: Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Office for Students
RNCM’s Engage committee oversees design, delivery and evaluation of activities. Public and community needs are identified through discussion with stakeholders, questionnaires and written feedback. Annually, the RNCM engages with c.7000 community and school participants, while RNCM attracts audiences of over 85,000 people across its three public performance spaces. Public and community feedback and comments are collated into an internal monitoring database overseen by the Head of Learning and Participation, which breaks down data on projects into numerous areas to help monitoring the work more clearly against target.
Aspect 2: Support
Practical support for public and community engagement at RNCM consists of the Deputy Principal overseeing a team of eight, which is responsible for programming at the RNCM. The programming team remit is inclusive programming, festivals and events and professional engagements (350 per year). Within the programming team the Head of Learning and Participation line-manages a further two members of staff for specific outreach activity.
Within Academic Studies, two Fellows in Creative and Professional Practice are responsible for coordinating student placements (c. 200 per year). Student placements include performing, teaching, arts administration, marketing, and outreach projects in schools, hospitals and care homes.
RNCM works hard to facilitate access to communities, so that public and community activities can be kept free or affordable to participants and their families. RNCM Development Department (7 staff) oversee fundraising and grants from the Leverhulme Trust.4 The RNCM has introduced the RNCM ‘Engage Pass’, a ticket scheme aimed at young people in Greater Manchester from selected postcodes, schools and community groups. It is designed to encourage young people and their families to experience music at the RNCM for free.
The RNCM Research Department and Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music (PRiSM) host regular public talks, weekly blogs and online events.5 Facilities and equipment resources that facilitate public and community engagement include recent investment of c.£65k into digital streaming across RNCM public performance spaces. This builds on the SkypeTX solutions from the 2017 HEFCE catalyst-funded project Ensemble+.6 The use of high definition live-streaming has enabled the RNCM to develop a distance learning solution and to live broadcast to the public our Research Forums (83% increase in participants), Q&A and Masterclasses, Radio, and Concerts during the COVID-19 lockdown.7 Communication to the public is overseen by RNCM’s in-house Marketing Department. Digital media, brochures, targeted mailing lists, website event and booking calendar are all utilised to keep the public informed.
At RNCM all staff receive training in their particular areas of public and community engagement and attend external conferences and workshops. Staff are rewarded for their engagement activities through the Principal’s Recognition scheme and promotions. RNCM is now recognising student engagement and entrepreneurship in the John Manduell Prize and Entrepreneurship awards.
Aspect 3: Activity
As a specialist monotechnic institution the focus of RNCM’s public and community engagement activity is inevitably music based. A priority is to ensure engagement activity is inclusive, open and accessible. Assertive measures have been put in place to broaden the participants engaged, as noted in the RNCM Access and Participation 2020-24 plan8. Examples of activities include:
Live Concerts & Events
RNCM reaches varied audiences through its concerts (of all genres from opera, jazz, big band to Garage Classical) featuring RNCM students.
Many of these concerts are free or subsidised and are of mutual benefit to students and audiences. The performance programme addresses major societal themes such as ‘We are Migrants’ (2018-19) and ‘under-represented music’ (2020-21).9
Education and Training
RNCM student placement scheme – many placements relate to key societal challenges concerning, health and wellbeing, deprivation, homelessness and migration.
Examples include LIME Music for Health, which won NHS in the North Excellence in Supply Award for Patient Experience. It delivers music across Central Manchester University Hospitals Foundation Trust; Booth Centre for homeless people; Streetwise Opera; Community Arts North, International Theatre in Prisons and Probation and In Harmony, Liverpool.
Widening Participation
Connect@Barlow Hall was shortlisted for a THE Award. A collaborative project between the RNCM and South Manchester’s Barlow Hall Primary School to help children with autism.10
Olympias Music Foundation - winners of the Creativity in the Community Award at the Be Proud Awards 2019. Charity founded by an RNCM PhD student, involves RNCM students and alumni. The primary aim is to bring music to deprived communities in Manchester, promoting the belief that everyone should be given opportunities to engage with music, regardless of income or background.11
Research
Making Music in Manchester was an AHRC Engagement Centre: Everyday Lives in War, First World War project co-created with community partners and volunteers. Drawing on the archives of the RNCM, Henry Watson Music Library and Hallé Concerts Society, it brought to life the music of Manchester during WW1 through interactive performances, workshops, exhibitions, and online resources. It led to an HLF project ‘Revealing and reinterpreting WW1 Archives’ with the purpose of reaching more diverse local community groups. The project informed the Paris-Manchester collaboration with the Paris Conservatoire, which was shortlisted for the Manchester Culture Awards (2019).12
PRiSM - has encouraged new audiences and influenced collaborators at RNCM, Barbican and MIF and co-created research with audiences through the PRiSM Perception App; notable projects include Changing Music in a Changing Climate, the Music of Primes (Manchester Science Festival), The Anvil (MIF), Ada Lovelace (Barbican) and Connected Health Cities.13
RNCM reviews and evaluates its partnerships and reports and shares its research findings, using annual strategy reports and reports to funders.
Aspect 4: Results and learning
Considering RNCM‘s strategy to develop global citizens with social, cultural and environmental awareness, the intended outcomes and impacts of RNCM public and community activities are:
Outcomes
Students learn to apply their skills in new contexts, making a contribution to society.
Participants experience performances and music making at the RNCM; have greater awareness of the benefits of music.
Impacts
Graduates are highly skilled creative practitioners, with a genuine passion and commitment to make a difference, using their skills to enhance the lives of others in society through music.
Participants’ experience of the RNCM is one of an inclusive, respectful, open and accessible HE institution.
‘Importantly for us here it's about training our students… to work with different types of community audiences and that is a very important skill that they will need whether they're going to work for orchestras or opera companies, employers in the music world are really looking for those skills now.’ Head of Learning and Participation RNCM
‘…and we see the (RNCM) students coming and going, different students, but the standards never drop and the value never drops, they’re always the same and they always contribute a great deal to the ward and to our patients.’ Health Play Specialist, Manchester Children's Hospital
Evaluation of public and community activities against RNCM strategic objectives is undertaken through student and staff surveys, participant questionnaires and through interviews and written feedback. Feedback on Engage activities, student placements, and research public engagement activities shows that audiences, participants, collaborators and communities benefitted from and were changed by the activities. Examples include PRiSM projects, The Anvil with MIF and Ada Lovelace project with the Barbican. The collaborations led to new, creative ways of working and interacting with audiences. Similarly, questionnaires and testimony from partners, volunteers and collaborators in the Making Music in Manchester and the Paris-Manchester project revealed that the project had a valuable impact on volunteers, students, and community groups who would normally not engage with RNCM or archives.
RNCM’s Marketing and Programming department collate quantitative data for event attendance, participant segmentation, website analytics and media coverage. This feeds directly back into the development of future projects and into the strategic monitoring for the Access and Participation strategy, Artistic strategy, Engage strategy, Marketing and Communications Strategy and the Research and Knowledge Exchange strategy. The Deputy Principal (Performance and Programmes) has overall responsibility for the Engage committee and reports outcomes to the RNCM’s Executive Committee, and through this Committee to the Board of Governors.
The RNCM has spent the past year developing its priorities and setting ambitious KPIs. Each department that contributes to the Engage Committee has targets set for public engagement activity. While some of the reportable KPIs in the last Strategic plan tended to focus on statistics, RNCM is developing new ways of evaluation in the access and widening participation plan.
Aspect 5: Acting on results
RNCM continues to act on the outcomes of public and community activities; the 2019/20 Access and Participation Plan identified key areas for strategic development over the next five years:14
Adopting a whole institution approach to public and community engagement.
Further developing and refining the internal database for capturing qualitative and quantitative data, with a greater focus on capturing evidence on the outcomes and impact of our projects.
Strengthening collaboration with its strategic partners across the city and region to extend the reach and impact of its work, and create a stronger complement to work already happening.
A recent example of whole institution approach to Public and Community engagement is ‘Changing Music in a Changing Climate Livestream’. In January 2020, PRiSM invited external science students working in climate science to collaborate with RNCM students in composition and performance. Workshops brought the scientists and musicians together, led by PRiSM Artists in Residence. This digital show premiered the resulting pieces with commentary from the facilitators, composers and climate scientist’s livestreamed to the public. The public were encouraged to give feedback and questions that were answered via LiveChat and hashtag #ChangingMusicClimate.
In 2019-20 ‘We are Migrants’ institutional theme was embedded into the performance programme, the curriculum, archives, research projects and public lectures. It involved community partners, students and staff in shaping its content.15
Through evidence from HESA metrics, RNCM continues to benchmark its level of engagement success in relation to peer institutions and the KEF Arts and Design cluster. Externally results of RNCM public engagement are shared with the RNCM network of partners and committees. Optimisation of the design, delivery and impact of public and community engagement is ongoing and has been prioritised in the current RNCM 2020-25 strategy: ‘We will lead targeted research on audience development and engagement; collaborating with the music profession to address priorities and identify meaningful mechanisms to share research findings’.
For further information, please send queries to research@rncm.ac.uk
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/Strategic-Plan-2020-2025.pdf↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/201920-Access-and-Participation-Plan-1.pdf↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/engage/↩︎
https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/research/research-centres-rncm/prism/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/news/hefce-supports-rncm-digital-project-1-05million-grant/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/series/research-forums/; https://www.rncm.ac.uk/watch-listen/q-and-as-and-masterclasses/ https://www.rncm.ac.uk/watch-listen/rncm-radio/; https://www.rncm.ac.uk/series/thursday-lates/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/RNCM-Access-and-Participation-Plan.pdf↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/we-are-migrants-stories/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/news/rncm-project-shortlisted-for-times-higher-education-award/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/news/olympias-wins-community-award/; https://www.rncm.ac.uk/news/olympias-music-foundation-wins-integration-award/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/news/collaborative-project-shortlisted-for-manchester-culture-award/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/research/research-centres-rncm/prism/prism-events/↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/uploads/201920-Access-and-Participation-Plan-1.pdf↩︎
https://www.rncm.ac.uk/we-are-migrants-stories/↩︎