EuroSonic NoorderSlag (ESNS) actively engages with around 130 festivals across Europe as part of the ESNS Exchange program. As a leading partner in this initiative, ESNS aims to transition into a fully sustainable festival in the coming years. It recognizes its role in spearheading the sustainability aspect of the ESNS Exchange and the industry at large. However, the current lack of information regarding the industry's sustainability practices poses a challenge, leaving ESNS uncertain about the necessary steps to improve the market as a whole. The NHL Stenden Professorship Transformational Media, ESNS and the minor Music Management are collaborating on a joint project to address this issue. The project aims to assess the current state of sustainable practices in European Music Festivals and analyse how these festivals communicate their initiatives. Additionally, students in the Music minor program will create and test a prototype to encourage festivals to communicate about their sustainability activities.
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Amidst evolving landscapes and contemporary pressures affecting both the arts and rural living, policymakers and artists alike are directing more attention to rural and non-urban cultural practices. Participatory art forms, such as music, offer a unique potential to (re)connect people with each other and their surroundings by fostering reflection and reshaping societal perspectives. However, developing or attempting to integrate existing and new practices into rural communities can pose challenges for artists, especially when coming from outside these locales. Moreover, there is a notable absence of clear and sustainable pathways for artists to engage in participatory practices within rural settings, and research on this subject is limited.This report discusses the results of a case study which took place as part of the broader Sound Soils research project – a practice-oriented initiative aimed at exploring opportunities, roles and approaches for professional musicians to contribute to rural life in the northern Netherlands. In this case study, we aimed to understand the unique qualities and cultural lives of villages in the North-Netherlands region. To do so, we conducted immersive visits to three villages and spoke to locals about the existing cultural fabric of their village, as well as the current concerns and wishes of their inhabitants, both in general and in relation to music activities.Alongside providing other valuable insights into village life in our region more generally, our findings help identify potential ways for musicians to develop (new) collaborative music practices in rural communities, with a focus on forms that are in dialogue with existing local interests and community life. In this way, we seek approaches that have a higher potential for sustainability by being embedded into existing community structures and cultural practices. In this report, we explain the purpose, methodologies, and main findings of the three villages case study and discuss how these results may lead to follow-up research-in-practice projects in the villages studied and others like them.
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Hoe klonk het landschap van je jeugd? Welke geluiden zijn verbonden aan de plek waar je woont en leeft? Zijn er liedjes die herinneren aan belangrijke momenten? In dit deel van het onderzoeksproject Sound Soils onderzoeken we vanuit het lectoraat Music in Context van de Hanzehogeschool Groningen de samenhang tussen muziek en geluiden en de plekken waar mensen opgroeien, leven en een identiteit ontwikkelen. Het lectoraat Music in Context doet praktijkgericht onderzoek naar muziekpraktijken die zich nadrukkelijk verbinden aan maatschappelijke contexten en/of thematieken.Geluiden en muziek zijn op meerdere manieren verbonden met de leefomgeving en identiteit van mensen. Geluiden en liedjes die sterk verbonden zijn met de plek waar je opgroeit, kunnen eraan bijdragen dat een plek betekenis voor je krijgt en dat je je ergens ‘thuis’ voelt: ‘Zoals het klokje thuis tikt, tikt het nergens,’ luidt niet voor niets een bekend spreekwoord.
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