Conservatoires in Society: Maximising our Influence
A link to our article in a special issue of the journal Arts and Humanities in Higher Education (The reflective Conservatoire),15/3-4 (2006) entitled “Conservatoires in society: Institutional challenges and possibilities for change” here.
At the instigation of members of the leadership and academic staff at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and The Royal Conservatoire, Antwerp a group of colleagues at conservatories from around the world met on 24 May 2013 at Skinners Hall, London, to begin a process of dialogue which aims to make explicit the potential of conservatoires to take part in the public conversation about society at large.
The point of departure for this dialogue was John Sloboda’s comments on the final plenary panel of the 3rd Reflective Conservatoire conference at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Tuesday 20th March 2012.
Read an Executive Summary of the Meeting here.
Read comprehensive notes from the Meeting here.
In his comments, Sloboda asked whether we as conservatoires reach up to the full stature of our potential for outreach, particularly in the light of a widely held view that political and corporate elites are not serving humanity as well as they might.
Consequently we are encouraging conservatoires to reflect and elaborate on the following questions that were raised by at the end of his comments:
• − How can we preserve authenticity and courage in our relationships to government and business?
• − How can we work to ensure that our activities do not simply address the sickness and brokenness of the prison cell or the hospital ward, but also the shortcomings of the corporate boardroom or of the political system?
• − Do conservatoires have any contribution to make to addressing the increasing polarization of modern society, increasing environmental and economic threats, the breakdown of popular trust in the ability of politicians and corporations to work in our interests?
These comments have resonated with some of the ideals that lie behind the best work that we do, but which perhaps have not been fully articulated. These ideals include serving humanity by empowering people as knowing and compassionate human beings, and – in particular ‐ helping them to realise the potential of art’s critical function in society (from a political as well as philosophical perspective).
The Conservatoires in Society project involves a broad review of these issues, leading to the authoring and dissemination of a statement or report which would ideally articulate a common vision, establish some key principles, and identify a range of practical steps that conservatoires could take (or indeed have already begun to take), either individually or collaboratively, to embody this vision in concrete action.