New Addition to the NAIP Bank of Resources

The two-year strategic partnership NAIP: Training Artists Without Borders (2016-2018) has published its project results in the NAIP Bank of Resources. This project, funded by the Erasmus+ programme, aimed at the modernisation of curricula and learning environment, through an interdisciplinary dialogue between higher education institutions in music and performing arts. The main goal of the project was to apply creative collaborative learning approaches to a cross-art setting.

The project focused on developing: cross-arts collaboration, mentoring as a tool for innovation, professional integration and talent development, and online learning approaches.  

A seminar will be held to present the results at the IUA on November 30 at 14:00. More information.

Cross-arts Collaboration

The first working group explored how to use creative collaborative learning approaches in a cross-arts setting. The published material includes an insight to the learning approaches, a description of the development phase and experiments made, a framework for implementing a cross-arts module, a practical toolbox with exercises for students and teachers, as well as examples of cross-arts practices.
Available here

Mentoring

The objective of the second working group was exploring mentoring as a tool for innovation, professional integration and talent development. The group presents co-mentoring processes and narratives, points to the dilemmas and complexities that arise from implementing mentoring in a fast-changing professional environment, discusses the ethics of the mentoring practice, as well as recommends available literature, theories and activities that have inspired and informed the groups meetings and explorations.
Available here

Online Learning Cross-Arts

The aim of the third working group was to explore possibilities of collaboration, creation and learning through the internet. The material presents the ideas behind, preparations and course description of the Blended Mobility Programme piloted twice during the project. This material can be used by all HEIs that are interested in exploring online approaches to creative collaborative practice. This material reflects the learning process of the participants individuals as well as collective learning by the partner institutions.
Available here

NAIP Intensive Programme 2018

The last Intensive Programme in the project NAIP: Training Artists across Borders, starts today in Zeereijp, Netherlands. The theme of this year’s intensive programme (IP) has been at the core of our Strategic Partnership: Cross-art making and collaboration.

The first 3 days are dedicated to cross-art workshops and artistic explorations in the local context. After the introductory days, students from the fields of music and performing arts collaborate in LAB groups, working as artists in residence at various local places.

The IP is held in the small village Zeerijp in the rural countryside of the province of Groningen. This village used to be located at the seaside but now it is surrounded by flat green meadows, farmhouses, agriculture and cows. This quiet village has around 350 inhabitants. Underneath this region of Groningen a big gas field was discovered during the seventies and the gas has been extracted from the soil ever since. As a result of this, the region has been suffering from many small earthquakes, causing damage to houses and farms. There is an ongoing political debate on the agenda of the national government about whether the extraction of the gas should be stopped and who should pay for the damage of the earthquakes. This local context is the starting point for the students’ collaborative cross-art making, creating common ground for them to work from.

This IP is the final event in the project and will form the finish point to the development work of the cross-art working group, which has been exploring how to create a collaborative learning environment for an interdisciplinary group of students.

Later this autumn, the results of the project will be presented in three strands: Cross-art collaboration, Mentoring and Online learning. The project’s outcomes will be published at www.musicmaster.eu as well as presented the AEC Annual Congress in Graz, Friday 9 November at 12:00-13:00.

Mentoring Staff training in Singapore

The second staff training event of the NAIP strategic Partnership was held at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore last January.

This event was held by the Mentoring working. Mentoring in NAIP aims to create a learning environment that supports innovation, professional integration and talent development, as well as support the individual study path of each student to enable the student to be strategic in making choices within the programme and in taking ownership of their learning.

The partner institutions in the working group stand very differently when it comes to mentoring. Some already have well developed mentoring-coaching approach within their institutions and others have not integrated mentoring into the curriculum. Mentoring is a central component of the NAIP programme, serving the surpose of supporting each student’s individual study path.

The aims of the staff training in Singapore was to explore the possibility of creating a handbook for new mentors. The work included reflecting on mentoring practices within the participating institutions, collecting recourses and sharing knowledge and expertise. Following the staff training event, the working group will continue the work on the handbook, which will be available online.

The work in Singapore was very fruitful and an inspiring journey of learning between the partner institutions.

NAIP Intensive Programme 2017

The NAIP Intensive Programme (IP) 2017 will be held 25 August – 3 September in Hafnarfjörður in Iceland, hosted by Iceland Academy of the Arts. The course is a collaboration of the institutions taking part in the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership NAIP: Training Artists Without Borders. This is the 8th NAIP IP, which is a part of the NAIP collaborative master programme, focusing on building up a strong network amongst the NAIP partners and the enhancement of personal skills, self-confidence, community engagement, collaboration skills, peer evaluation and reflection. This year’s course has a focus on creative collaborative learning approaches in a cross-art setting. This entails working with cross-art collaboration, including skills such as developing concepts, stories, design, performance and dialogue with the community.

The course will take place in Hafnarfjörður, a neighbouring town of Reykjavík. It is situated about 30 minutes from Keflavík Airport. Students and staff will be accommodated around the centre of the town and the main working location will be the music school of Hafnarfjörður (also in the centre). In addition to this, students will have the opportunity to create collaborations with various locales in the community.

The program will start with introductory workshops led by teachers from the participating institutions. The group will also participate in some site-specific workshops, for example relating to the theme of elf-believe now and then. This workshop will include visiting elf-rocks and enchanted places to discover their history and their effects on urban planning, culture and daily-life of locals for hundreds of years. Participants will sense the connection between people and nature in the town, get to known the town, while opening the door to the veiled world of elves, ghosts and other hidden beings. Following the workshops, students will work on their own projects in interdisciplinary groups and will have access to all the course’s teachers will be available for mentoring and participating in the students’ projects.

Staff Training in Visby

In the end of May, the first staff training event of the NAIP Strategic Partnership was held in Visby, Sweden.

This event focused on innovative learning approaches within the sphere of creative collaborative practice in a cross art context.  The participating teachers were introduced to various working approaches in a cross art environment. The seminar offered a learning by doing approach, where each participant held a short workshop presenting their own practice. Although the teachers were invited to train in a safe environment, they stepped outside their comfort zone, thereby becoming students themselves, experiencing the learning approaches first hand.

The workshops focused on interdisciplinary art making in the context of Visby, Sweden. The group set up a laboratory in which the members of the cross arts working group collaborated in cross art making processes in order to look into approaches, environments, activities, conditions and tools, which might facilitate, support and stimulate this kind of collaboration and creative learning process.

All participants were invited to prepare a working form or activity which opened up a core/specific aspect of their discipline. The emphasis of the workshop was on learning more about specifics features or approaches or ways of working of the different art forms. Everyone was invited to work with the following theme: Language. The theme could relate to various aspects of the notion of language: Communication through art, non-verbal communication, the variety of language presented through different art forms.

Blended Mobility Intensive Programme in Iceland

22-26 March the intensive week of the blended mobility in the project NAIP: Training Artists Without Borders took place in Iceland, hosted by Iceland Academy of the Arts (IAA). The aim of the blended mobility in this project is to explore strategies for generating material for artistic projects using digital tools and mediating the material through online platforms. The course entails the intensive week in Iceland as well as continuing collaboration of students throughout the spring semester.

This intensive week in Iceland, The Internet in Art and Music, was an opportunity for participants to meet and develop projects in groups that draw upon the internet as an aesthetic, as a vehicle, as an ecology that we live and work in. Students and teachers from Iceland Academy of the Arts, Royal Conservatoire The Hague, Prince Claus Conservatoire Groningen and Yong Siew Toh Conservatoire of Music in Singapore are participating in the course.

The majority of the three days were organized around group peer-to-peer exchange where participants develop their project and explore through different exercises and discussion formats how their projects could be extended and deepened.

Additionally, the group work was enhanced by a series of talks throughout the three days - where students heard from speakers that represent the cutting edge of the art and music field in terms of their engagement with the internet.

The course leader is Alexander Roberts from IAA’s Performing Arts Department. The speakers are Maria Olson, with the talk Speaking on the internet as an aesthetic and vehicle for art, Holly Herndon with the talk Speaking about the internet as a sonic space and a reflection on how the internet has brought about a trans human wherein we exist and live increasingly online, Owen Hindley with the talk Speaking on New Technology and The Internet as a tool for Music Composition, and Lóa Björk Björnsson with the talk Speaking on Memes as Art Specifically in Relation to its Feminist Political Capacity.

Thanks to Kim Bosch and Karst de Jong for the photos.

A new NAIP Strategic Partnership 2016-18

The NAIP collaboration has initiated a new Strategic Partnership, funded by the Erasmus+ programme with the title NAIP: Training Artists Without Borders. The project started in autumn 2016 and will finish in autumn 2018.

The project is coordinated by Iceland Academy of the Arts and the project partners are Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, Stockholms konstnärliga högskola, Stockholm, Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna, Koninklijk Conservatorium, The Hague, Pins Claus Conservatorium & Academie Minerva, Groningen, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore, Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC), and the Icelandic Opera, Reykjavik.

This project aims at the modernisation of curricula and learning environment, through an interdisciplinary dialogue between higher education in music and performing arts. The discourse will take place within a consortium, consisting of three institutions offering the NAIP programme (European Music Master for New Audiences and Innovative Practice), four higher educational institutions offering training in music and/or performing arts, as well as a professional partner in the field of performing arts.

This project presents the opportunities offered by cross-border and cross-art collaboration as a tool for curricular innovation, with active participation of academics and students in the field of music and performing arts, as well as players from the professional field. The project's progress and results will be widely disseminated, thereby making a significant impact on higher education in the fields of music and performing arts in Europe and beyond.

This partnership project consists of several activities over a two-year period, focusing on developing:

• Cross-art modules
• Mentoring as a tool for innovation, professional integration and talent development
• Online learning approaches

The activities will be in the form of two cross-art intensive study programmes, two blended mobility courses, three working groups, a joint staff training event and a staff development seminar. The activities of the project are designed to develop new and sustainable curriculum structures, both in the physical as well as the virtual classroom, exploring the possibilities of new cross-art joint modules. The project utilizes the international conversation and cross-fertilization in the partnership to enhance curriculum development, and create new approaches for creative collaborative learning in a cross-art setting. The project explores the advantages of an active dialogue between the professional field and higher education, as well as sharing and learning through a critical discourse between academic staff members of music and performing arts.

This project builds on experiences gained through previous partnership projects, which aimed at the development of creative collaborative learning in higher music education, emphasising enhancement of personal skills, self-confidence, community engagement, collaboration skills, improvisation, peer evaluation and reflection. In today’s professional environment of artists, the boundaries between subjects of art are becoming more and more blurred. As it is now apparent that interdisciplinary skills are an inseparable part of working in the professional environment of music and performing arts, the higher education institutions must respond to the students' needs to train in a cross-art learning environment. This project responds directly to this need, offering both teachers and students the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary discourse and activities.

NAIP Bank of Resources Published

The two year strategic partnership “NAIP: Innovation in Higher Music Education” , which ended in end of August has published its project results. The strategic partnership, funded by the Erasmus+ programme, aimed at the modernisation of curricula, and teaching and learning approaches in higher music education through a further development of the European Music Master for New Audiences and Innovative Practice (NAIP).

The aim of the working group which focused on online learning was to explore this field in the setting of music education. The group developed and organised the course Connected Improvisation which focused on collaborative improvisation in an online setting. Students and staff from five institutions participated in this project, which entailed a short intensive course in The Hague in January 2016 and six online sessions following the intensive course throughout the spring semester. The working group produced an online resource which presents the process of the course. The resource includes text, videos, sound examples and pictures, to give the reader an overview and feeling for how the course was implemented, what worked and what did not work, as well as how staff and students experienced this experiment.

Enter the resource on online learning.

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The working group on research served as a platform to discuss the role of research within the NAIP programme or NAIP-style courses. The aim of the working group was to further develop the research component in the NAIP programmes or NAIP-style courses, provide valuable information for NAIP teaching staff as well as food for thought for further curriculum development. The output of the group is varied and ranges from reflective documents to hands-on tools.

Enter the resource on research.

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The project’s working group on curriculum development focused on the joint NAIP module, Leading & Guiding, by producing a handbook that can serve as a springboard for creative learning. It describes the existing practice of leading creative workshops as an important educational instrument. This was done through an introduction into the philosophy, examples of the practice and approaches as implemented by various conservatoires, as well as a bank of exercises, presented in a series of short clips published on the NAIP website. To offer a context in which the exercises can be applied, the short documentary Pass the Sound has been made by British filmmaker Lainey Richardson. A feature length documentary will be made during the year 2017.

Enter the resource on creative workshop leadership.

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The project’s working group on curriculum development also focused on joint development of the NAIP institutions. The group worked towards presenting the core NAIP modules with joint module descriptions that present the modules in all the institutions, on the NAIP website. The module descriptions are supported by text that gives insight into the overall idea and structure of the programme, and how the modules complement each other. Writing the joint module descriptions was a good opportunity for the NAIP institutions to further develop the programme, collaboratively working on the learning outcomes and aims of the NAIP modules, within the framework of AEC/Polifonia Learning Outcomes and the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area.

Enter the resource on Joint NAIP Modules.

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At the end of this two-year project we would like to thank everyone who participated and contributed to the project, leading to the project outcomes which will hopefully be a valuable to not only the participating institutions, but all higher educational institutions offering studies in music, as well as music schools on all educational levels. We do hope the NAIP bank of resources can be useful as a tool for institutions who would like to develop their curriculum, further train staff members as well as students who would like to get acquainted with approaches to creative collaborative learning.

7th NAIP Introductory course in August 2016

The 7th edition of the NAIP Introductory Course will take place in Austria, hosted by the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (www.mdw.ac.at) and as an integrated part of the 26th edition of the International Summer Academy (www.isa-music.org). This high standard soloist- and chamber music course and the surroundings of small villages in the Austrian Alps will offer us a unique opportunity to blend the NAIP principles within a new and challenging context.

The Reichenau an der Rax/Semmering region traditionally hosted the Austrian emperor and his entourage during their annual escape from dry and dusty Vienna. It became not only the outpost for the lucky few, but also the area where artists such as writer Arthur Schindler, architect Adolph Loos and composers such as Arnold Schönberg and Gustav Mahler would find their retreat. The local community benefited from these summer residencies and adjusted to its role of hosting and serving distinguished guests, yet keeping its own playground for local culture somewhat separated. The area came to blossom when not only the spectacular Südbahn railway through the Alps brought immense locomotives and spectacular viaducts to its valleys, but also when in the late nineteenth century an ingenious system of tunnels and channels covering a distance of a hundred kilometers was created to provide the two million citizens of Vienna with clean drinking water from the underground wells and sources around Reichenau.

In these very special cultural and natural surroundings the ISA brings over one hundred talented students and teachers specialized in classical soloist- and chamber music to the area every year for concerts in historical places. Concerts that will attract visitors from all over the region and Vienna in particular. Just like in the old days. However, a real link to the local community has always been missing. This is where the NAIP Introductory course will come in. The NAIP staff and students are invited by both the ISA management and the community of Reichenau to create connections and organize events that will include the people living in Reichenau and the students visiting the region for this chamber music course.

Preparatory work has led to a range of options for our new NAIP students and teachers to tackle this task. The students will live together with some of the ISA students with space for shared warm-up exercises every morning and common dinners. This will help students from both courses to get to know each other and interact. Apart from that, there are established connections with local brassbands (prepared by Leonard Paul of Mnozil Brass), the local residency for the elderly, the holiday daycare for children whose parents have to work, a center for refugees, the local music school and a variety of interesting cultural and environmental places and sites. All of these activities were given the branding name “ein(heim)mischen”, which is a word play that combines two German words: Die Einheimischen(= indigenous/local residents), ein-mischen(= to blend - to interfere). To which our Austrian friends add: mischen possible!

We look forward to coming to Reichenau an der Rax!

Music & Dementia Workshops at Fríðuhús Day Centre

The NAIP strategic partnership organised a staff training week in Reykjavík, 4-8 April 2016, hosted by Iceland Academy of the Arts (IAA). Staff from Prince Claus Conservatoire (PCC), Royal Conservatoire in The Hague (KC) and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helskinki, as well as staff and students from Iceland Academy of the Arts participated in this event.

Philip Curtis (PCC) lead the week, which focused on creative music workshops with dementia patients. Students and staff visited the daycare centre Fríðuhús for people with dementia, and held two workshops with residents. The workshops were focused on improvisation and active participation of the residents.

In addition to the creative music workshops, the staff training week also included discussions, seminars and an open lecture about Music & Dementia. The discussions were focused around learning about the NAIP Modules Music & Dementia, which are taught at PCC in Groningen and KC in The Hague.

Pictures by Þorgerður Edda Hall, published with permission of participants at Fríðuhús:

Staff training about Music and dementia

The next upcoming event in the NAIP Strategic Partnership is a staff training workshop, hosted by Iceland Academy of the Arts 4-8 april, where teachers from the participating institutions will meet and explore the module on Music and Dementia, which is currently being taught at Prince Claus Conservatoire in Groningen and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.

The workshop will be facilitated by Philip Curtis, who has been a part of the Music and Dementia development group since the piloting of the training took place. This staff training event will provide an opportunity for the teachers to get acquainted with the ideas and methods behind this module, introducing the possibility of starting up similar courses in the partner institutions.

The workshop will be held in collaboration with the National University Hospital of Iceland and the Association of Supporters and Relatives of Dementia patients in Iceland. The event will include workshops with teachers and students, an open lecture by Philip Curtis, creative music workshops with dementia patients in the daycare centre Fríðuhús, as well as discussions and reflections on curriculum in the partner institutions. 

First online session at Blended Mobility course

The Blended Mobility course has been organised by the working group on online teaching and resources, in the NAIP Strategic Partnership. The course consists of an intensive programme which was held in The Hague 27-31 January 2016. Following the intensive programme, the students are meeting virtually at six online sessions throughout the spring semester, where each student group will be located in their own institution. Karst de Jong from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague is leading the course, which focuses on improvisation. The students will initiate and create collaborative projects during the intensive programme, which they will then keep developing together virtually throughout the semester.

Today the students played together online from five locations. First session of six was today, held with students and teachers in Reykjavík, The Hague, Groningen, Oslo and Singapore.

View fullsize

Thanks to Sigutė Žurauskaitė for the photo!

Pictures from the final performance - NAIP Introductory course

The NAIP Introductory course was held in The Hague last August. The course ended with a final performance where students presented their group projects.

Pictures by Janneke Pater:

NAIP Introductory course kicked off in The Hague

The NAIP Introductory course has been kicked off in The Hague with 25 students from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Prins Claus Conservatorium Groningen, Iceland Academy of the Arts, Royal College of Music Stockholm, Norwegian Academy of Music, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore. Over 20 teachers from the same institutions are participating in the course along with the students.

The group had workshops lead by Philip Curtis, Guy Wood and Niels Vermeulen on Friday and Saturday and went on an excursion around The Hague on Sunday.  The final concert of the course will be held at the Theatre De Nieuwe Regentes on Friday at 20:00.

NAIP Introductory Course, 20-29 August 2015, The Hague

During the two-year strategic partnership, two intensive courses will be held with students and teachers from the partner institutions. After five NAIP Introductory Courses in remote places surrounded by most beautiful and inspiring landscapes NAIP is in for a change. The next Introductory Course will be held in an urban context. The city of 's-Gravenhage (The Hague) will be the backdrop of this 9 day course in the inspiring surroundings of the Regentessekwartier. This part of town was built between 1880 and 1910 and now hosts a highly cultural and diverse population. Along the main street of this quarter, the lively Weimarstraat, the former indoor swimming pool De Regentes is located. This building was reconstructed into a fully equipped theatre in 2005 and now houses the Theatre De Nieuwe Regentes. This will be the base-camp for the NAIP Introductory Course. In and around this theatre students will develop small projects with and for the local community in all of its variety. The course will introduce the students to a creative-collaborative community of musicians from all over the world, combining music-making and entrepreneurship, in addition to giving the students an idea of what the NAIP programme stands for.

Staff Development in Bali - May 2015

The NAIP strategic partnership is organising a staff development seminar for the participating institutions, hosted in Bali by Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. The goal of the staff development seminar will be two explore and reflect on the two compulsory modules that stand at the core of the NAIP curriculum: Performance & Communication and Leading & Guiding. Over the last five years these modules have been further developed within each school, sometimes quite differently by various teachers. During the seminar, core teachers of these modules will offer insight in the philosophy behind their teaching. They will share knowledge and experiences, and deliver hands on examples of their approach with a group of students. In particular, Performance and Communication will be subject of this form of reflection so that the content can become more transferable to other teachers.

First Working Group Meetings

The first working group meetings in the two year strategic partnership “NAIP: Innovation in Higher Music Education” have taken place. The strategic partnership, funded by the Erasmus+ programme, aims at the modernisation of curricula, and teaching and learning approaches in higher music education through a further development of the European Music Master for New Audiences and Innovative Practice (NAIP). In the programme, students are trained to become diverse and highly employable musicians, capable of dealing with all the challenges that will arise throughout their careers. They learn to develop and lead creative projects in diverse artistic community and cross-sector settings. The goal is to teach students to create and communicate to new audiences, and to develop their leadership skills in various artistic and social contexts.

Online Teaching and Resources

The working group on online teaching and resources met for the first time in Groningen, February 1st – 2nd. The group’s aim is to reflect on how on-line tools could support teaching and learning in NAIP, to explore opportunities offered by a further possible development of the current NAIP website, and to look into the possibilities of setting up an on-line platform for exchange of information between the NAIP partners.

This working group will also organise a blended mobility course for students from the participating institutions. The students will meet for five days intensive work, followed-up by a virtual mobility. The course will be a venue for carrying out and testing the ideas and proposals of the working group. The working group has decided that the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague will host the intensive workshop, which will be held in January 2016, followed up by online workshops throughout the semester. The content of the workshops will be organised around improvisation.

Joint Curriculum

The working group on joint curriculum development met for the first time in The Hague, February 4th – 5th. The working group’s tasks are to explore how the existing NAIP programmes could be more aligned amongst themselves in terms of content, assessment and opportunities for the mobility of staff and students. The group will also produce teaching materials for the joint modules. Furthermore, joint funding possibilities for the future will be explored within this working group.

Research

The working group on research has its first meeting scheduled in October 2015. This working group serves as a platform to discuss the role of research within the NAIP programme or NAIP-style courses. The working group will serve as a tool for current NAIP teaching staff to inform themselves about the latest development in the field of research, and to further develop the research component in the NAIP programme.