Open Academy
Develop your skills and find new meaning in your music making.
Open Academy, our community and participation department, works with around 6,000 people beyond our enrolled students and staff each year.
The role of music in participation, community and health continues to grow both in the UK and internationally. It is crucial that our students have the opportunity to obtain skills and experience in this exciting area of work. Open Academy offers seminars and workshops alongside hands-on experience in the field through electives that are available to all students. We also offer fellowships to graduating students who will be the future leaders in this work.
Open Academy works closely with artistic and community partners, offering opportunities for students and project participants to explore making music together. Through Open Academy you will develop your musicianship, skills and confidence and make connections with people from all walks of life.
I’ve learnt so much about the transformative power of music. Whether you’re 5, 25 or 95, music can break down barriers and forge connections.
Courses
Open Academy Projects
Open Academy works closely with artistic and community partners, offering opportunities for students and project participants to explore music making together
All of our projects are led by skilled professional artists, ensuring a high quality of experience for everyone involved and giving our students the chance to develop their musicianship, skills, and confidence in a wide variety of contexts.
Schools and Young People
Working closely with Music Education Hubs and local schools, we co-design and deliver music projects that support creative learning. Our projects in this area include:
- Projects with mainstream Camden primary schools and nurseries with the support of Camden Music Service
- Primary Pupil Referral Unit projects with Robson House at Netley Primary School
- Workshops with Tower Hamlets Primary Schools as part of IntoUniversity Bow’s Primary FOCUS programme
- A tour of Tower Hamlets Primary Schools in collaboration with Spitalfields Music
- Student placements with Orchestras for All on their Modulo programme.
- Student placements with Awards for Young Musicians
- Student performances at Wigmore Hall’s For Crying Out Loud concerts
Disability and Inclusion
Making music together can be a powerful way to create equality and explore the ways in which a shared creative process can be empowering for everyone, unlocking the musical potential of the whole group. Our projects include:
- Collaborating with the City Lit Percussion Orchestra since 2016, and the City Lit Inclusive Choir since 2022
- Working with children at Woodlands Centre for Autism at Netley Primary School since 2018
- Student placements with The Choir with No Name since 2022
Health and Wellbeing
The positive impact of the arts on health and wellbeing is now firmly established, with the profile of work in this area continuing to grow. Our projects in this area include:
- Creative workshops with children and young people receiving treatment at the Royal London Hospital
- Collaborative projects with Wigmore Hall as part of their internationally-renowned Music for Life programme, which brings together musicians, people living with dementia and their families and carers
- Student performances at Age UK Westminster’s memory cafés
- Placements for Open Academy Fellows on City of London Sinfonia’s Sound Young Minds programme for young people under the care of psychiatric hospitals
- Regular cross-arts co-creative sessions with people living with dementia at a local care home, led by Julian West, Head of Open Academy
- Creative workshops led by Jackie Walduck with people living with the effects of homelessness at The Connection with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra.
Online Projects
Out of the Ordinary is a weekly online project developed by Open Academy, Wigmore Hall, UCL’s Rare Dementia Support, and musician Caroline Welsh. This creative project brings together Academy students, professional musicians and people living with rare forms of dementia across the UK.
The project aims to nurture the wellbeing of everyone involved through music and the expressive arts.
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