Well not quite a project perhaps, but funding for an event and to make a short film. I have been awarded a small grant (£7270) to support a contribution to what sounds like a terrific day at the cool spaces of King’s Place, London, on March 12. This is the AHRC’s Creative Economy Showcase, where research projects that collaborate with the creative sectors, in processes of knowledge exchange, are being showcased.
The event I’m leading has a panel discussion of academics and leading jazz festival organisers, the academics having been funded by AHRC for their jazz and festivals-related research, and the organisers coming from festivals that value including academic content.
We are also producing a short film, by filmmaker Gemma Thorpe, featuring interviews with both sets of people.
Our academics:
- Prof Martin Cloonan, Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, PI/Co-I live music and jazz festivals projects
- Prof Tony Whyton, Music, University of Salford, PI Rhythm Changes project
- Alison Eales, University of Glasgow, CDA PhD candidate.
Our festival partners:
- John Cumming, Director, London Jazz Festival
- Tony Dudley-Evans, Artistic Advisor, Cheltenham Jazz Festival
- Jill Rodger, Director, Glasgow Jazz Festival.
Our filmmaker:
- Gemma Thorpe (made the wonderful film of Cumbrian hill-farmers, A Break in the Clouds, for Connected Communities archaeology/heritage project in 2013).
We draw on five research projects across music festivals funded directly or indirectly (HERA) by AHRC, and all of which have a central impetus around knowledge exchange / co-production:
- Developing Knowledge Exchange in the Live Music Sector project (2012-13)
- AHRC Connected Communities Leadership Fellowship (2012-15)
- 25 Years of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival: Urban Regeneration, Regional Identity, and Programming Policy CDA (2011-14)
- HERA Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities project (2010-13)
- The Promotion of Live Music in the UK: a Historical, Cultural and Institutional Analysis project (2008-11).
These projects represent a significant investment by AHRC in at least five current or recent jazz and related music festival-centred research projects, including one of the world’s the leading jazz festivals (according to The Guardian), London. Also included in the events is an AHRC strategic partner (Cheltenham Festivals). They are high-profile organisations. The festivals featured have very different organisational structures and yet each has an established track record of working with universities on KE projects.
Key aims are to explore these issues and to produce the following:
- International perspectives to KE: working with European festival agencies and the benefits of networking and collaborating with pan-European networks, HERA leading A&H KE practices across EU.
- Co-production: how useful are academics to festivals, and festivals to academics? What knowledges can they bring for each other? Evaluation (including Qualia), intellectual content for festivals, creative links with music departments, public engagement …
- Articulating policy / regeneration / urban dialogue between researchers and leading festival organisers.
- Working with an (AHRC-)experienced filmmaker to produce and show a short film about festivals / HEI collaborations, to be also made available on festivals’, HEIs’ and filmmaker’s websites.
- Creative KE: where’s the (jazz) music here? How might or do musicians / composers engage in this (new) dialogue?
Who will it be of interest to?
Festival and events managers, policy makers, regional and national arts administrators, media organisations, academics and evaluators, music and arts journalists, musicians, the festival-going public.