We have come a long way since our beginnings in 2014 when Sue (a former teacher from Burnholme Community College) and husband Al, began delivery of several community-clubs. 

 

Initially we delivered weekly music clubs for children, teenagers, adults, the Tang Hall Chorus, and an inclusive club. There was also an evening electronics and technology club for adults, a sports club for children/teenagers, and one small contract with Applefields for a regular class with year 10 pupils.  The Christmas 2014 gig was packed with 280 in the audience!

 

The business began to grow further in 2015 with ‘Musication’, a brand-new part-time music industry training course for adults who are unemployed/disadvantaged, and  SoundSMART - music training for adults with learning disabilities. Other new business included a weekly contract with Danesgate pupil referral centre.  

 

A variety of gigs/events were held during the  year, usually at least one a term, and this was to become a pattern for following years. The most notable over time have been: ‘Regeneration’ in 2016, consisting of 9 hours of music on 2 stages in the old school building, the 2018 ‘Phoenix’ concert at the new centre, and gigs at The Duchess, Fibbers and the Barbican. We have a record label, Musication,  of which we are very proud. Our biggest artist is D.Ni.L - who is AKA Neil Card, one of our own staff team. (Not only has Neil released 6 albums on our label, he achieved national recognition in 2019 when he was awarded the Youth Music title of: 'Inspiring Music Leader of the Year').

 

 

We are the key provider of community music and arts vocational training in York. We have a proud identity and track record as a social enterprise & community interest company, and we apply our entrepreneurial approach to the fulfilment of our charitable aims.  Our vision encompasses a holistic and self-supporting model of community growth. We combine our educational and training services with the products we create, to offer a wide range of community clubs, activities and events for people to enjoy.

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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: several classrooms, a workshop, and a recording studio. During 2021/2 we have had to pause some of our community clubs in order to operate as safely as possible throughout the pandemic, but we are really looking forward to September 2022 when we will be located on TWO sites - our Burnholme site, plus The Jam Factory! We are gong to be bouncing back bigger than before with an exciting new programme of community clubs and projects. 

 

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As we prepare for our ninth year of delivery, it is obvious that in some ways Tang Hall SMART is rather different to how we were at the  beginning. Perhaps most obviously, we have grown, as evidenced in our much larger staff team. In our first year there were just Sue, Al and Linda, and now there are 27 of us!

We have refined our vision too. Over the years we have tried our hand at all sorts of things, such as 'Baby Rockers', 'Adult Rock School', 'Community Arts and Crafts', 'Tea Dances for Care Homes' etc - and at one point we had 22 different clubs and classes taking place each week. For the 2021/2 year we have been focussing mainly on Smart-Ways (our Post-16 education programme), and 'Kickstart', which is our 'Igen-funded'  cutting-edge project for adults with multiple barriers. We have also managed to include Musication, the Flourish@Smart choir, and Give it a Go Joe Drama club.

 

We are anticipating lots of changes from September 2022, when we will be relaunching and expanding our record label, opening a publishing house, extending our offer to the community, and branching out into Music and Arts Industry Training. However some things have not changed in the slightest! We are still firmly rooted in an ethos of inclusivity, respect for each other's differences, a belief in talent, a desire to see people succeed. We still want to see people smash those ceilings, we still have a 'can-do' attitude, and we still take every opportunity we can to put on a great concert! 

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