Vision: A healthy singing leader community
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the draft sector support plan, which we incorporated into a Creative Scotland extended open fund application in spring 2023, and two open fund applications following that, all of which were unsuccessful. We’re no longer able to apply to Creative Scotland for this project as we’ve reached their limit, and are now awaiting the outcome of our multi-year funding application which incorporates Love Singing into Love Music’s core activities. We will also continue to explore other funding options.
If you would like to send us your thoughts on the plan, or have suggestions of what should be included, please send us an email to hello[at]lovemusic.org.uk.
Once we achieve funding, we will be in touch with as many singing leaders as possible to build a picture of who is working in the Scottish song leader sector and what your needs for future support and training are.
Background
In Sept 2022, we held a Comfort Of Voices ‘songference’, bringing community song leaders from across Scotland together to evaluate how the community singing sector can best support itself as a connected network and to discover what additional input is required for it to face a bright future.
The programme was curated by a steering group of experienced singing leaders representing a broad range of genres, skills and experience in singing settings in Scotland. It was a peer-to-peer learning event, with 19 singing leaders contributing to the programme delivery, attended by 79 leaders both in person and online. It was produced by the charity Love Music and funded by Creative Scotland.
As represented by the attendees and survey responses, the community singing workforce is very diverse and not well connected. Individuals’ work and impact lacks visibility beyond the communities they serve. Diversity, however, is one of its key assets, and further work must be carried out to better understand who this workforce is, so that a national plan is able to support leaders at all stages of their careers including: those with formal training or who are self-taught; those who have organisational support or have to support themselves; professionally paid musicians or those reliant on what their choir members can afford.
Evidence of need
All attendees at Comfort Of Voices were asked in post-event surveys if they would endorse the idea of a national community singing sector support plan. The outcome was 100% in favour.
The What Next? document sets out a framework for a support plan, and includes examples of potential support structures and the priorities that underpin its vision. This document, alongside the Comfort Of Voices Evaluation Report, is a distillation of the structured data collection, conversations, networking, and feedback gathered from choir leaders across Scotland before, during and after the Comfort Of Voices event.
Investment in the current and emerging singing leader workforce in Scotland is at the heart of the plan and the core objectives are to better understand and find ways to support the needs of the individual singing leader, building a healthy and connected singing leader community.
Plans will adapt according to your feedback
Your feedback on these plans will inform where any gaps in provision might be.
The timeline we created for our original extended open fund application can be read in conjunction with the What Next? and Comfort Of Voices evaluation documents, which evidence the need for each of the activities below and acknowledge that the singing leader workforce is best placed to articulate these needs. The plan is 100% sector-led and will respond and adapt to ongoing feedback and evaluation from all network members as the timeline progresses. Singing leaders from across Scotland will be engaged to guide, develop and deliver content across the national plan.
As the plan was subject to funding from Creative Scotland, the project steering group will work out what can be achieved for the benefit of the highest number of singing leaders without the same level of funding.
Timeline of proposed activity
The timeline below was created for the original extended fund application and will be updated once we have secured funding to reflect future dates.
How can you help and get involved?
If you are a singing leader working in Scotland, or an organization or individual that supports community focused singing opportunities, please share your feedback and tell us what your own circumstances are to help shape a collective plan that will build a better connected and supported national body of singing leaders. You can do this by:
