Surrey Arts presenting on work with displaced children and young people

On 29 July Surrey Arts' Inclusion Manager, Jim Pinchen, will be in Helsinki to talk at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) conference about our work with displaced children and young people.

The ISME conferences take place in different regions of the world every two years and in 2024 the conference comes to Europe. These large scale, week long events serve as platforms for music educators across the globe to come together and share academic research and best practice.

Jim is a composer, facilitator, international trainer and Inclusion Manager for Surrey Arts. His award-winning projects have been cited to highlight 'Best Practice' by ISME and the Department for Education (DfE) and have been showcased at the Royal Albert Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and other iconic venues.

Jim said: I feel honoured to have the opportunity to share knowledge and learning from this important area of our work. With funding from Youth Music, Surrey Arts has invested significant time and resources in these projects over the last 5 years and it's fantastic that we will be able to support international colleagues to develop similar programmes in their areas.

Jim's presentation focusses on how music can be harnessed as a tool to support children who have been internationally displaced, and also local people who are receiving them into their communities.

Surrey Arts Head of Service, Sarah Lee, says: Surrey Arts are very proud of our music projects with displaced communities and I'm delighted that we have been invited to share our expertise on a global stage. I'd like to thank our hard working staff and all those partners who have supported this area of work, including Surrey County Council, Big Leaf Foundation, Alliance for Better Care and Arts Partnership Surrey.