Stepping into Music receives Arts Council support
Tuesday 3 February 2009
The Dalcroze Society UK is delighted to announce that it has received a generous award from GRANTS FOR THE ARTS (Arts Council England) to support its new Early Years programme of music and movement education and training, Stepping into Music.
Funding from Youth Music and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation enabled the Dalcroze Society to run a pilot of Stepping into Music (SiM) during 2005 and 2006 and an independent evaluation concluded the programme was highly successful and effective. In order to establish SiM as a permanent strand of its work, it also recommended the need for the Society to develop its infrastructure and create a new post to take on the overall development and implementation of the programme in future.
It is this exciting new post that will be funded by Arts Council England and its key objectives will be to develop, implement and manage the core activities of SiM which involve nationwide provision of in-depth training for musicians and early years professionals (accredited by Canterbury Christchurch University) and also developmental creative music and movement activities for children.
The Dalcroze Society views the Grants for the Arts funding as a crucial and exciting opportunity to strengthen its organisational capacity and to extend the scope and reach of its work. Through SiM, the Society will be able help address the current national lack of high quality Early Years music making thereby enhancing and increasing the music education opportunities available to many more young children and also increasing the number of skilled and qualified practitioners to ensure these opportunities are sustainable in the longer term.
