This conference was of great success up to my consideration, taking into account the resources and time constraints due to a sudden change of venue brought up by poor weather conditions and landslides that affected the surrounding areas of the UPEACE campus. Nevertheless the conference moved on smoothly in the Humboldt University in Pavas. The conference with different programs and thematic presentations allowed for networking and for the audience to participate in very interesting topics such as the ones mentioned in the previous post.
There is something that will stick with me from the initial presentations and that is the DIMENSIONS for international development projects by Renata Villers:
1. Innovation in delivery and management of products and services
2. Multi-Sectoral (presented also by Prof. Jan Pronk as the requirement of institutions for technical advances)
3. Strategic management practices
4. Scalable designs
5. Measurement of results
6. Financially sustainability design
7. Policy dimensions
I think this will help very much in the analysis of our Music for Development Project, because it brings a clear and logical framework to work with.
Readers: Is there anything missing in these dimensions??
I wanted also to take this chance to post here the outline of the learnings from the Azur Indian Project presented in Japan, in the hopes of getting some feedback out there on how to move it forward.
Azur Indian Music Project
~Getting to know the world through Music~
6 November 2010
Azur Indian Music Project
Midori Kamada
Antarqui Romero
Overview:
To think about raising awareness on development issues through music, brings the question on how to link these two worlds together. Until today, for a cello and piano duet, the answer to that question varies according to the circumstances and audience to whom the presentation is intended for. Consequently, the initial segment within which we focused our energy was primary schools and junior high schools, since these facilitated our efforts of association, definition of the performance site, and most importantly, the opportunity to touch these minds in development, to realize our objectives of raising understanding on ways to alleviate poverty and how to help build sustainable livelihoods, according to our experience in the field.
This project was validated as an NGO by the International Division of the City Office of Niigata, Japan. Since 2008 we have been active with this project and have managed to make many presentations that vary from among other topics:
Experience as a volunteer and how to become a part of this form of aid.
Developing countries and the differences between Japan on poverty issues and developing opportunities.
Music appreciation and early stimulus through sound.
The objectives:
Presented to schools initially and then to other organizations ranged from the following:
1. To be familiar with international music and instruments through live music appreciation.
2. To acknowledge the relationship between Japan and other countries such as Honduras and Zimbabwe through lectures and music instruments from those regions.
3. To be familiar with the cultures and the customs of countries/regions which are relatively unheard of in Japan such as those from Honduras, Zimbabwe, and in general Central America and Southern Africa.
4. To recognize their own Japanese traditional music through music appreciation.
5. To familiarize themselves with foreign languages such as English, Spanish and Shona.
7. To expand their knowledge on International Relationships in a rapidly changing multi-cultural society.
2. To acknowledge the relationship between Japan and other countries such as Honduras and Zimbabwe through lectures and music instruments from those regions.
3. To be familiar with the cultures and the customs of countries/regions which are relatively unheard of in Japan such as those from Honduras, Zimbabwe, and in general Central America and Southern Africa.
4. To recognize their own Japanese traditional music through music appreciation.
5. To familiarize themselves with foreign languages such as English, Spanish and Shona.
7. To expand their knowledge on International Relationships in a rapidly changing multi-cultural society.
To achieve this, the topics and music presented in our lectures were set together with the school’s representatives according to their teaching agenda, and to develop a relationship with the students that would help in the communication process we attempted to build a set of presentations for that audience.
The balance between music and the lectures was defined in accordance to the audience’s age and interest, the depth and approach, grew from a familiar music repertoire, to international music that helped introduce the topics in the lecture.
Learnings:
This project brought a set of highs and lows in terms of seasonality.
Making our presentations for schools required adaptation to their yearly programs which sometimes was filled beforehand and had no space for events such as our project. This led to searching for more schools and other institutions that would keep us afloat regarding our expenses, which meant being more flexible in terms of these organizations’ requests, sometimes focusing more on music than our lectures.
Although we charged to cover our expenses for each presentation, if there had been financial support to charge less to these institutions, the control over the content and the amount of acceptance or repetitions on presentations would have been more. Therefore, something to look into for our project is alternative funding
Another important thing to consider regarding the initial question in this paper on how to link the world of music and development, now that Azur Indian is in Costa Rica, is the approach of the lectures.
In Japan we presented information about developing countries, but now that we are in a developing economy, we see music itself as a form of development. Music provides the tools for education to flourish, and a way to encourage a career path through music as an option. This is what we are now looking into in order to move our project forward now in Costa Rica
We would appreciate it if you can provide some feedback on your experience or any advice regarding our learnings and future goals.
Azur Indian
Entry: Antarqui
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