[Saturday @ 9:15am – 10:45am, Room 4]
Ely Lyonblum and Nasim Niknafs
Abstract
With the University on the precipice of cultural and technological transformation, this workshop invites participants to consider new approaches to developing accessible creative spaces that redefine musical excellence. The convenors will draw from two initiatives at their home institution, the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, as a case study for practices in public scholarship and community engagement. Following the tenet that “…praxis is always ‘history making action’ that transforms the world in which the practice is carried out” (Kemmis et al 2013), we acknowledge that the role of inclusive design and the application of technology in music studies holds vital importance as we strive to create equitable music spaces for all learners.
Our first case study focuses on strengthening ties between higher education institutions and vulnerable artists through Sustainable pARTnerships: Collaboration and Reciprocity in Creative Cities, a 16-month participatory arts-based research project that brings together the cultural and academic sectors to jointly imagine a post-pandemic reality in which artists can thrive. Work collaboratively with arts workers and arts organizations to document the challenges they have been facing, we developed the emergent research methodology of crystal-scaping and collaborated with five Toronto-based artists working in a variety of media to create an interactive website, The Artists’ Broadsheet, and an in-person touring public exhibition, Art (Un)done: Private Lives, Public Encounters.
Our second case study focuses on nascent strategies to bring the expertise of newcomer and refugee artists into the Canadian arts sector and the Faculty of Music. This research investigates the cultural programs and music education practices developed for refugees by the municipal government, and arts organizations to critically examine the intersections and divergences of such programs with the already rich musical and cultural practices and experiences that refugee newcomers bring with them when resettling in Toronto.
The proposed workshop includes an interactive exercise that maps institutional resources, unacknowledged expertise, the attribution of agency to actors outside the institution, and the socio-cultural location of researchers in relation to their collaborators and subjects. Participants are encouraged to examine the complexities of working with communities and creating welcoming spaces for them into the University environment.
Biographies
Nasim Niknafs is Associate Professor of Music Education at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto where she also serves as the Associate Dean, Research and Coordinator of Music Education. Nasim’s research concerning social justice, activism, and politics of contemporary music education intersecting with cultural politics, and popular music has been widely published in international journals and edited volumes of music education. Concluding longitudinal research on the music education of rock musicians in Iran, Nasim is conducting a SSHRC funded research titled, Sanctuary City: Cultural Programs, Music Education, and the Dignified Lives of Refugee Newcomers in Toronto where she examines the cultural programs and music education practices developed for refugee newcomers by the municipal government, and arts organizations in Toronto. Nasim holds degrees from Northwestern University, New York University, Kingston University, London, and University of Art, Tehran.
Ely Lyonblum is the Strategic Research Development Officer in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. His projects, largely focusing on cultural equity and music technology, range from the history of sound recording to American Sign Language performance art and storytelling through music. He trained as a documentary filmmaker at Goldsmiths, University of London, and completed a PhD in music at the University of Cambridge. His work has been presented by the MIT Media Lab, CBC Radio 1, the Smithsonian Institution, and the British Library and has been shown at music and arts festivals across six continents.