How do you
teach music from other cultures in a Danish primary school where most teachers
and pupils basically have no personal experience of other cultures ?
Simple. You
invite musicians from Somalia to teach Somalian music and musicians from Mali
to teach Malinese music and culture.
Then you
develop a teachers guide to the music and the culture and organise workshops
with the schools followed by concerts by the artists.
I’m
referring to a three year “development programme in primary schools with music
and the culture meeting in focus”.
The project
named “ world.dk” included 1.600 pupils and their teachers in 25 primary
schools in Denmark in the period 2000- 2002.
It was a
collaboration by a Danish International development NGO, the Danish Association
of World Music and the organisation “
Live music in schools”.
The
principle was simple.
The school
classes were visited by an artist from one of the touring bands.
In a
workshop the musician would introduce the kids to some characteristics of the
instruments and music from her/his country and at the same time talk about
culture, customs etc.
The
compendiums developed for the teachers included theoretical background to the
music, the country and its culture. Thus art, history, geography, social
science , religion etc. were integrated in the music classes.
When the
artist later visited the schools and performed with his/her group the young
kids already had established a personal relationship and knowledge of the
artist and the music and generally were very positive in advance.
And within
romanticising too much , the reactions in general were that what originally was
thought to be a project that would introduce music from other cultures to young
Danes became an
“intercultural
education offer of high quality”
The project
was evaluated continuously to adjust methods.
A few
details :
The
musicians were prepared by the organisers to deal with the education system
The
musicians were professional.
The
musicians had been living in Denmark for several years
Only
schools and teachers who actively opted to be part of the programme were
included in the project.
Basic
funding came from external sources.
The age group
was 11- 14 as the organisers felt that this age group is more open than older
kids.
Some
significant results :
-
Teachers
capacity in dealing with foreign cultures improved
-
Children
of minorities (e.g. Somalis ) gained self esteem and even greater status when
artists from their “home countries” became visible as resource persons (and
stars) rather than problems.
-
Pupils
became active rather than passive observers
-
Knowledge
was added / attitudes changed
-
Improved
cultural understanding between “ethnic Danes” and “immigrants”
Another
example of developing cultural capacity
In Denmark
most local community museums focus on the past history. They have collections
of old furniture, objects and the occasional closed down/ re-established grocery
shop where you can buy candies of the “good old times”
During the
recently “Images of Asia” festival in Denmark the participating cities were
asked to look at their relationship to Asia.
The
objective was that the cities dealt with the globalisation process from a local
perspective.
When did
the first Toyota shops open in your city ? When did your family start buying
Sony’s instead of Bang and Olufsen ? What are your cities trade relations to
Asia and what was imposed on you and what did you actively choose and why ?
were some of the questions we asked city councils, schools and institutions to
raise.
In some
cities it was rather obvious that the local “china grill" had been around
for thirty years but in general there was very little knowledge of where the
“Chinese” came from and why they had come – and even less that the “Chinese” in
fact were Vietnamese.
Our idea
was that - in the right hands and with the right tools a combination of
exhibitions, school programmes and cultural presentations will not only improve
the general cultural capacity of the involved but equally develop new networks
and projects.
But
interesting questions can also be raised such as :
In the case
of the world.dk programme we are talking about professional musicians that have
a genuine knowledge of their own cultural heritage – they are cultural practitioners who although more or less
integrated in their new setting have a very deep insight in the history and
practices of their art.
In the case
of the “local grill owner” it is not as obvious that he/she is an obvious
representative of Asia when formulating a cultural programme.
The grill
owner may be a “consequence-specialist” of integration policy in a new society.
He may be a specialist in a certain type of Europeanised, Asian food , but not
necessarily a good representative of Chinese kitchen.
On a
personal level my experience with Pakistan born taxi drivers in Copenhagen is
that my knowledge of Pakistani icons such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan or even Iqbal is deeper than my driver. No problem with that, but it does
raise the question of whom you choose to work with and how you do it and not
the least what capacity mean.
Cultural
co-operation between countries often is the equivalent of cultural
presentation.
Relatively
limited audiences – often in the major cities - are offered official or
semi-official art, music or dance presentations from other countries.
That is
obviously valuable in many ways but it seldom leads to a genuine co-operation
and less to any degree of capacity building.
But
fortunately more and more artists and institutions take an interest in
cultural-co operation programmes that contain capacity building.
The Shuttle
02 was such a cultural exchange programme hosted by the Danish Center for
Culture and Development and implemented by South African and Danish dance and
music practitioners, arts managers and cultural operators.
The
overriding aims were on one hand to :
-
Support
and develop human resources of individuals in the creative process
And at the
same time :
-
contribute
to the development of dance and music as essential art sectors within
contemporary South African cultural life and society.
Now one
thing is how you define “contribution to the development” and “support and
development of human resources”.
Another
thing is how you do it.
I will
focus on the process:
The shuttle
model can be characterised as :
“a process oriented network-concept” which make it possible to allow programmes to develop naturally and include individuals and institutions with own ideas and resources thus creating a highly sustainable and flexible programme structure for the project.
Instead of
“inventing” new structures the Shuttle model operates within the existing
environment and is thus applied to the daily realities of the arts and cultural
sector.
The seed
money is being used to develop collaborations through workshops, through
seminars through co-productions and being flexible the model in principle gives
space to modifications and changing of focus through the process.
The funding
is basically a mean to linking up existing structures as most of the project
partners contribute from their own budgets to the projects, e.g. provision of
equipment, venues, publicity, housing and local transport, staff and
administration.
Being a
model that – in this case – included artists and cultural operators from two
countries the projects not only developed professional practices but equally
practised and developed intercultural capacity.
What is
essential to the success of the model is obviously the ability to identify
partners who can stimulate and compliment each other.
Another
criteria for success is diversity and type of projects.
For a sum
of less than 150.000 Euro a total of 20 projects within 8 main sectors were
developed
ranging
from “high” art to community projects..
Different
aspects were targeted e.g. education, training, management, artistic creativity
and production.
The
approach secured synergy and networking within the sectors and between the partners in both countries
and after the termination of the project several participants continue to
collaborate and exchange ideas.
If you
should point out a few key factors to the success of such a project they are :
-
project
partners do not only receive funding but equally invest personal engagement and
resources
-
key
persons are involved
-
mutual
influence and inspiration
Some of the
measurable effects are :
-
longer
term collaborations
-
improved
cultural capacity on a professional as well as an intercultural level
Some of the
questions to be raised are :
-
How do
we ensure that mutual cultural capacity building is getting a higher priority
in international cultural presentation and co-operation ?
-
How do
we develop further new models for international cultural exchange where
artists, cultural workers, educators, social workers and administrators
strengthen their own capacities and international/intercultural capacities,
which they need to facilitate and strengthen cultural diversity ?
-
How
can increased cultural capacity and international co-operation become
beneficial to the development of local culture industries ?
-
How
can international development organisations including the World Bank play a
role / be motivated to support cultural capacity building and local cultural
industries ?
-
Which
role should INCD play ?
Ole Reitov
Danish
Centre for Culture and Development