We are one of the key providers of community music and arts training in York, but we are also a social enterprise, and are proud of our in-house record label, Musication, and the products we create in our workshop.
Located at The Centre@Burnholme which houses Tang Hall Explore library and cafe, as well as other community providers - we operate from our suite of rooms including: two music classrooms, an art classroom, a workshop, and a recording studio.
We are now in our seventh year, and have grown hugely as a company since our early beginnings in 2014 when Sue (a former teacher from Burnholme Community College) and husband Al, began delivery of music and electronics community-clubs. Today, we are a diverse team of 23 staff, and between us we teach: music, art, drama and electronics - to two main groups, young people requiring individualised programmes, and also to adults facing multiple barriers such as homelessness, addiction, and/or poor mental health.
Since the beginning of the pandemic March 2020, we have been developing our digital offer, and from September 2020 we have been able to deliver some fully blended sessions, incorporating an amount of on-site activity. Our first priority has been 'Smart-Ways', our individualised, full time, Post-16 learning programmes. 'Smart-Ways' learners have had up to 40% of their week on-site, and the remaining 60% via one-to-one and small class Zoom tutorials, and through engaging with our 'state of the art' virtual college, SMART SPACE. This is our fabulous cloud-based learning system which allows learners to engage with their courses, upload their work, receive feedback from tutors, and to dip in and out of our extensive contents library of home-made video tutorials.
From January 2021, we have been able to offer our on-line college courses to schools and other organisations who are looking for high quality, digital input, to enhance the educational experience of young people who are struggling with attendance, and/or who have additional needs. For further information, please refer to the SMART SPACE page above.
We are also delighted to have been able to offer FREE sessions over Zoom for the community, from January 2021. These will run until the end of May 2021. For more information read the blog post click here.
Our grant-funded community programmes for adults experiencing disadvantage, such as Musication, Kickstart, Flourish@Smart - have undergone changes during the pandemic and have reflected the need to operate safely. All participants who were attending any of these programmes in March 2020, can become members of THS Music and Arts Community which offers the opportunity of a variety of video tutorials, together with a virtual group sharing platform, real life stories, and a monthly virtual open-mic night. Please look at the individual pages above for information about current on-site offers with respect to each programme.
During the pandemic we have held regular open-mic nights on Zoom. These have been lively and well attended, and we have also held 2 live-streamed concerts, without an audience, from the assembly hall at The Centre. However, it is with great excitement that we announce the date of our Community Concert on Saturday, June 26th. More details to follow nearer the time, but we are hoping that this event will actually have a live audience.
We have been running a variety of community clubs, classes and programmes for over six years. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel below and check out our videos
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