Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival and Brighton & Hove Music & Arts to unite

Two key cultural organisations are to come together to create a city-wide hub for creative and cultural learning.

The move – which will take effect from 1 July - will bring together the combined work of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival and Brighton & Hove Music & Arts, who deliver music education to children and young people across the city

By operating collectively, access to creative and cultural experience for children, young people, families, schools and communities will be significantly improved by enabling the service to lead city-wide initiatives. It will also create a more sustainable model with potential for expanding the service’s fundraising abilities.

The transfer has already been warmly welcomed by the Arts Council for England and the National Foundation for Youth Music.Brighton & Hove Music & Arts - which currently sits within Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) - provides music and arts education and performance opportunities for all children and young people across the city. Over 4000 children and young people are directly taught by the service each week. The service also leads on a range of major projects and events - such as SoundCity, Brighton & Hove’s Music Education Hub - which engage a further 3000 children and young people through live performances

Andrew Comben, Chief Executive Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for us to extend the work that we already do at Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival with children, young people, schools and the wider community and to play a central role in the cultural learning of the whole city. Having one of the country’s most celebrated music services connected to us directly in this way provides us with a fantastic chance to not only become a centre for cultural learning but also to connect up artists, audiences and children in their creative work.”

Both organisations already have a strong foundation of partnership work through SoundCity and other projects as well as the ‘Our Future City Programme’ which aims to improve the lives and chances of young people through cultural engagement and creative skills by developing a central portal to a range of activities across the city.Councillor Dan Chapman, Chair of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Children, Young People and Skills committee, said: “This transfer offers enormous potential for expanding the service’s fundraising abilities. There are lots of different sources of funding that the service can’t get access to while it is under council control. The transfer will also mean the service is more closely linked up with the wider arts and cultural scene in the city. This is exciting because it will make it easier for the service to lead city-wide initiatives for children and young people.”

For people using the service there will be no big changes as a result of the transfer. Teaching staff will stay the same, as will:

• In-school activities such as Soundmakers and instrumental / vocal lessons
• Out-of-school activities such as the Music Centre, Summer School, tours and concerts including the Schools Christmas Concert
• The venues for lessons, Music Centre activities and ensemble rehearsals.

For more information about the transfer of Brighton & Hove’s music and arts service from the council to Brighton Dome & Festival Ltd on Saturday 1 July 2017 click here.