Creative ID: 212
Wairarapa, Wellington, Kapiti, Manawatu, possibly also Hawke's Bay, Wanganui, Taranaki, Waikato, East Cape, Coromandel, Auckland and Northland.
My arts or creative practice (including details about my specific focus within that art form/practice and my strengths)
I am a music teacher and musician with a master’s degree in primary education focused on music therapy with many rich experiences facilitating interactive music programmes for a wide range of clients of all ages in Europe, India, North America and New Zealand.
My track record of experience and success - or the track record of experience and success of the creative or artist that I will partner with
- Main organiser for many week-long massive international gatherings of musicians, dancers, and meditators in New Zealand, Czech Republic, Germany, India and USA
- Hundreds of interactive music workshops in schools, kindergartens, rest homes and senior villages in Europe and New Zealand
- About 30 interactive music workshops in schools for REAP throughout the whole region
- About 30 inter-generational music workshops for an organisation throughout the whole region
- Public drumming and musicianship workshops for many local activities including a Christmas Parade, an event for a Community Centre, an Interactive performance, Sunday Farmers markets, night markets, networking events and many others
- One and a half years of weekly "Wairarapa Music Co-creation Meetups"
- Massive free inter-generational music workshop with 500+ participants playing music together
- More than one year of running regular drumming group lessons in various schools in the district plus years of private music lessons
- More then a decade of practicing supervised Music Therapy
- Many music performances including the most recent at a festival
Describe the experience you have had working with children or young people, teaching or facilitating creative processes
- Degree in primary teaching focused on music education and music therapy
- More than 13 years of practice of teaching in various schools all around the world (mainly Czech Republic and New Zealand, but also India or South America)
- I was facilitating one-week long inter-generational gatherings of 200+ people of all ages (mainly families) camping together, bringing the songs, dances and customs from their culture to share and teach
- From my teenage years, I was the creative and survival summer-camps facilitator
- I work with all ages - did music therapy with the newborns in the orphanages, workshops for the parents and babies, kindies, schools, universities, companies, NGOs, corporates, teachers education, therapist training, senior villages, rest homes, hospices. Lately, the most popular are the intergenerational events where we let participants of many different ages interact, mainly through music
- Over the years, I noticed that young people enjoy not just drumming but are also interested in survival skills and for older boys and men I started a men's group, which is becoming popular for all ages, luckily also including the teenagers
Why I want to be part of the Creatives in Schools programme and how my involvement will link to my creative practice
I feel that Creatives in Schools Programme is supporting work I already do but am sometimes struggling with the funding. I see this as an amazing opportunity to be supported in delivering professional and high-quality art interactions to the schools. I used to do a very popular series of workshops in schools in Europe where over the few weeks I came repeatedly and we had an opportunity to connect within the groups much deeper way and progress into very useful learning not just the musical skills but also communication skills, teamwork, ability to listen, leadership, presentation, conflict resolution. Music is a very powerful tool for such things. Because of the different funding system in NZ primary education, I didn't get any opportunity to deliver the full potential of such workshops and I believe that through Creatives in Schools programme we can potentially do it. And for me personally, my everyday facilitation is not just about leading - every day I learn a lot from the groups and individuals, students and teachers. I believe that's human nature - share gifts and stay open to learn from others and grow together.