Music as a Global Resource: - International Council for Caring ...

SECTIONS:
Music for Sustainable Community Development
Music for Lifelong Learning
COUNTRY:
Australia
PROJECT:
INTERGENERATIONAL INVOLVEMENT AND LEARNING THROUGH MUSIC, RELATED
ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY: ARTSTORIES
DESCRIPTION:
ArtStories is a transdisciplinary model of practice described as intergenerational involvement and learning
with the arts. It is a framework for participatory arts-based initiatives in education, health and community
settings where participants create and tell stories of self, family, community and dreams. ArtStories may
include listening, singing, playing, dancing, writing, drawing, painting, constructing, and multimedia.
ArtStories began as a participatory, educational research initiative in the Northern Territory of Australia
from January 2006 to December 2008. The Northern Territory is an extremely diverse region where the
total population includes almost 30% Indigenous Australians, many living in remote communities. The
Northern Territory population is both multicultural and multilingual.
ArtStories initially came to life in five urban, rural and remote school communities, investigating the
impacts of arts-based teaching and learning in mainstream classrooms. The major findings were improved
student literacy, a positive impact on classroom teaching, and four core principles of practice. These core
principles do not represent a step-by-step procedure. Rather, these elements of practice are recursive and
often simultaneous, and describe ways of engaging and involving people in the arts:
Connect people, ideas and purpose
Share stories of people, place and practice
Explore the past, the present, and future possibilities
Be inventive and open to learning from the unexpected
ArtStories looks different in each place, with different groups of people. It provides a framework for
practice rather than a prescription for action. The ArtStories model guides our interactions and
involvement with each other and the arts. ArtStories practitioners are drivers of change who advocate,
model and celebrate the impact of involvement and learning with the arts. ArtStories core principles are
robust, with anyone, of any age, anywhere.
CURRENT STATUS:
The Australian researcher, music educator and music therapist who conceived ArtStories is currently
employed as Library Program Advisor with Northern Territory Library, a state reference library. Libraries
all over the world increasingly utilise the contributions of practitioners and professionals from a range of
disciplines, including educators, scientists, historians, and digital artists, who introduce libraries to new
audiences, unexpected ideas and inventive collaborations. Current intergenerational library programs in
urban, rural, and remote areas of the Northern Territory, where the arts are the currency for community
building and learning include:
Telling Tales: Telling Tales uses an intergenerational storytelling approach, where young
children, older school-age peers, and senior adults from the local community use music,
photographs, artworks, puppet play, and everyday objects to elicit and share stories about their
experiences of schooling. It is a collaboration between a local school, library and educational
advisors, and grew out of a concern in a rural elementary school about children‟s classroom and
playground behaviours. Northern Territory Library collects, preserves and enables access to the
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