Culture, Arts and Refugees

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Matthew Daniels and Katherine Rogers, Sound It Out Community Music

Location Visited

Glasgow

What did you do?

We visited Paragon International in Glasgow from 5th – 7th February 2008. The purpose of this visit was to learn more about the history and development of the organisation, and their music practice with refugees and asylum seekers. The visit was hosted by Ninian Perry and Noel Bridgeman.

Contacts

What did you learn from your study visit?

The study visit was useful from a working group point of view as it gave us a chance to meet with Noel (the third member of our subgroup) and talk through different responsibilities – we divided tasks and briefly talked about evaluation approaches. In terms of (Katherine’s) IDP goals it was great to get a sense of another music based organisation’s practice in a different region/country and to compare ways of working.

In relation to (Matt’s) IDP it was very useful to have dialogue with a representative of the Scottish Refugee Council to learn about national strategic policy in this area, and to have in depth conversations with Ninian around their organisation’s history and involvement with the current political developments, and how they could inform Sound It Out’s own progress.

What key issues or questions did it raise for you?

• How can we in the West Midlands create a cross sectoral recognition and interest in refugee arts and work much more cohesively with other agencies?

• In the changing landscape of migration how can we integrate other types of migrants into the work we do as a sector?

• How do we achieve a mean of ensuring that the impact of our work is quantifiable and justifiable to funders and the wider public?

• How do we enable greater opportunities for peer exchange such as this (which has been really useful) and/or access additional funding to enable it?

In what ways has this experience changed or enriched you professionally?

Katherine: It has given me the opportunity to take time out from my own work and learn about how a similar organisation works in a different environment. It has also given me a chance to reflect on aspects of our own practice, ethos and future plans in this field.

Matt: Similar to Katherine, this has been a great opportunity to take time away and focus on this specific area of our work. It’s been really beneficial to have the in depth discussions around practice, potential etc. that we have had with Ninian and Noel, and it’s actually provided me with ideas around how we can push our Infusion Ensemble forward to their next phase, which time away and these discussions have allowed me time to think through and consider.