
This session consisted of two parts.
This lecture is geared towards policy makers and practitioners in higher music education who want to gain insight into the Dutch pilot-project ‘My Music Ability’. This project aims to provide pre-service music teachers with tools to work with disabled people. In this project, the UK-based Drake Music organised training sessions of accessible music-making, through discussion, video and practical work. The pre-service music teachers also performed in an inclusive music ensemble. Melissa Bremmer (Research Group Arts Education, Amsterdam University of the Arts) will explain the goals of the project My Music Ability in more detail and show a short film to exemplify the project. (www.ahk.nl/lectoraten/educatie/conferenties-en-projecten/my-music-ability/) & (www.drakemusic.org).
In the Netherlands nearly 80.000 children aged 4 to 20 are educated in special needs schools. How do we provide them with arts education that is really suited to their needs? What makes these needs different from those of other children? Is extra funding needed for meaningful arts education? Mocca, center of expertise for arts education in Amsterdam, conducted a 4-year research and development programme in special needs schools, working closely with national initiatives. It included a development programme for artists and art educators. In a pilot project 19 schools received funding for partnerships with artists and institutions such as the Rijksmuseum. In a dialogue, Peggy Brandon (Mocca) shows the impact of arts education through portraits and interviews with children and shares the results of the development programme and the pilot project.
View Mocca's infographic on the results of their pilot project.