Rotherham Music Strategy
Music Local has been appointed by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, to deliver a new Music Strategy for Rotherham to cover a ten-year period and span across the borough.
In undertaking this task, we will:
undertake sector mapping in line with those undertaken in other local authority areas across Yorkshire, as well as identifying opportunities open to those involved in music in the region.
put forward surveys to music makers and general audiences to further explore the lines of enquiries within the music strategy brief.
undertake direct conversations with local stakeholders and convene roundtables with interest groups.
explore communities in the district to uncover hidden music making and engagement.
We will deliver a recommendation and strategic proposal to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council by the end of 2021.
If you would like to talk to us about this work toward Rotherham’s music strategy, you can contact us here.
Rotherham Music Survey
Residents of Rotherham, and those who are involved in music in Rotherham but may be based elsewhere, are invited to complete the following survey.
The survey will ask questions about attending live music events, performing music, music’s impact on health and wellbeing and the access young people have to music education and performance.
Rotherham Music Strategy - Background
Rotherham has the ambition to be a town where musical creativity is at the heart of every aspect of life. Music from before birth, through school and after school activities, with family learning, participation as audiences and encouraging expression can lead from passion to profession improving the life changes, social, economic and mental wellbeing of every child in the borough.
Rotherham Music Education Hub (MEH) has been in existence since 2010 when Arts Council England created 123 music hubs across the country. The MEH is a partnership of local, regional and national music professionals who aim to ensure good quality instrumental and vocal tuition, support for schools, teachers and practitioners and wide-ranging ensembles and progression opportunities. It works primarily with schools, pupils and families and focuses on the five to 18 age range. The MEH is governed by a series of priorities set by Arts Council England and funded through a grant provided by the Department for Education and administered by Arts Council England. The MEH in Rotherham brings together a range of partners from the Council’s Music Service which delivers a range of in and out of school programmes to Rotherham Minster, in school Heads of Music, and representatives from both industry and the voluntary and community sector.
In 2019 Rotherham’s Cultural Partnership Board and its membership adopted the Rotherham Cultural Strategy, the first of its kind in Rotherham for more than a decade. The strategy set out seven ‘game-changing’ priorities including:
· A Vibrant Heart – supporting town centre recovery and regeneration
· Vital Neighbourhoods – revitalising our neighbourhoods
· Adventures in Rother Valley – developing the green and active leisure offer in the south of the borough
· A Great Place for Wentworth and the Dearne Valley – building on the cultural heritage of the north of the borough
· Turning Passion into a Profession – developing skills and talent pathways into industry
· Amazing Events – creating magical shared experiences to bring people together and build pride in Rotherham
· Children’s Capital of Culture – working with children and young people to strengthen their voice in the development and delivery of Rotherham’s cultural and leisure offer
Rotherham’s cultural sector is starting to rebuild and recover after many years of economic decline, under investment and more recently the devastating impact of COVID-19. Its music sector, in particular, has suffered the effects of these challenges with no independent music venue in the town and a limited range of opportunities for performance via other venues or events. Nevertheless, there is a diverse community in Rotherham and with communities come culture. Currently the music practices in Rotherham ae not easily visible due to the limited amount of venues, but that does not mean that they do not exist.
A new Music Strategy for Rotherham will enable the borough to find its talent, support and nurture that talent, develop and create new opportunities for musicians and performers and articulate its place in the regional offer.
Scope of the strategy
The scope of the strategy is broad, aiming to encompass the geographical boundary of the borough alongside a diverse range of communities of interest from practicing musicians and artists across genres to schools and education, residential and cultural communities, promoters and organisers, local authority departments and venues at both a local and borough scale. Although commissioned by the MEH the scope of the strategy goes beyond this partnership.
The strategy will need to explore the following lines of enquiry:
· What do we currently have? – Who are Rotherham’s musicians? Which communities do they represent? Where do they practice and create? What genres are covered? Are they traditional or do they fuse genres and sounds? How big is the sector? How skilled is it? What is unique about music in Rotherham? What is distinctive? Who are the audiences? Where do they currently engage with music?
· Where is there potential and opportunity? – What is currently working well? What should the borough build on and nurture? What is missing? Where are there connections and disconnect within the sector? What are the career pathways in the borough? What are the opportunities outside of progression to access music for enjoyment, health and wellbeing?
· What will Rotherham need to realise its potential? – What already exists? How joined up is it? Are there opportunities for greater collaboration at a strategic level? What additional resources are needed? Over what timeframe?
The strategy will be developed through conversation with a range of partners and communities but will need to pay particular attention to children and young people, both as the key focus of the MEH but also linking to Rotherham’s ambitions to become the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture in 2025.
About Music Local
Music Local supports and develops place-based music support systems and infrastructures, tailored to the needs of individual music communities. We establish communication platforms and create links from music education hubs to the commercial music industry and beyond. We co-ordinate activity to support sector development, including training, networking and facilitation of nation-wide initiatives, all underpinned by the aspiration to make regional music communities more inclusive. We created the emerging talent development program Launchpad that now supports artists and emerging professionals throughout Yorkshire, partnering with with PRS Foundation for regional PPL Momentum funding for the region.
In 2017 we created Music:Leeds, a not-for-profit organisation established to act as a single, centralised point of contact that coordinates activity to support, promote, develop and grow music-based activity within the city and have since gone on to work with local government through the region. We helped establish Bradford Music Network and worked with Sheffield City Region Music Board to create Music:SouthYorkshire, alongside supporting the work of Coventry City of Culture, Yorkshire Sound Women Network and Brighter Sound.