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Press release

South Coast Music Partnership

SoundStorm successful in its Music Hub Investment Process bid as part of the larger regional ‘South Coast Music Partnership’

A consortium known as the South Coast Music Partnership has been appointed by Arts Council England to lead the new expanded Music Hub area covering Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton from September 2024 as part of a national programme to provide high-quality music education for all children and young people. The partnership will comprise Portsmouth Music Service (on behalf of Portsmouth City Council), Southampton and IOW Music Hubs (on behalf of those two local authorities), and SoundStorm (on behalf of the current BCP Music Hub).

South Coast Music Partnership will receive £1.6m investment from the Department for Education for 2024/25. This includes £1.2m to coordinate music education activities, as well as £400,000 to invest in new musical instruments, equipment and technology to meet the needs and ambitions of children and young people in the region, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. The partnership agreed that Southampton Music Hub will be the administrative ‘Hub Lead Organisation’, because of its central geographic position, reporting on behalf of the consortium to Arts Council England.

South Coast Music Partnership will deliver high quality music education accessible to all children and young people in the region through diverse partnerships between educational, creative and community organisations. The investment will help to deliver the National Plan for Music Education, and give all children and young people the opportunity to develop their musical interests as far as they wish, including helping them to begin careers in the music industry.

The new Hub will build on the strong track records of Portsmouth Music Hub, SoundStorm, and Southampton/IOW Music Hub as individual organisations and collaborative partners. They will continue to lead coordination of the local offer in their local authority areas, building on their own strong networks of local partnerships. They will also work strategically together, and with partners across the region.

Dan Somogyi, lead of SoundStorm, said: “SoundStorm, on behalf of BCP Council, is delighted to have been able to secure significant investment for music education in the BCP area for 2024/25 – and hopefully beyond that – as part of the new larger consortium Music Hub, the South Coast Music Partnership. It wasn’t an easy process joining together four geographically separate areas, each with their own long-established Music Hub, into the new Partnership covering what is certainly the most unique Hub geography in the new music hub landscape! However, building on a strong record of previous collaboration, we all contributed to the successful bid and are hopeful we have come up an effective and exciting new regional Hub moving forward. SoundStorm will continue to lead and coordinate our range of local partners in the BCP area delivering music education opportunities to our schools and communities, whilst joining together with Portsmouth and Southampton / Isle of Wight on collaborative initiatives. We’re hoping this will complement our current local offer with an increasing number of new opportunities for young people, schools and their communities.”

Darren Henley, Chief Executive of Arts Council England, said: “Music education is enormously powerful – it can enrich young people’s lives, help them connect with the people around them, and start them on the pathway to fruitful and fulfilling careers.  We are excited to announce this investment in a new generation of Music Hubs, which will support the brilliant work of our dedicated music teachers across the country, and help bring high-quality music education to even more children and young people in every part of England.”

Phil Gibby, South West Area Director, Arts Council England, adds: “We’re thrilled to award over £9.4 million from the Department for Education to seven new Music Hubs across the South West. Each Hub Lead Organisation is set to enable high-quality musical activities to thousands of children and young people in the region, so that everyone everywhere can pick up an instrument and express themselves.  A further £3 million will boost access to industry-spec technology and equipment, helping to raise ambitions and remove barriers to the artform. We can’t wait to see a new generation of talent sing, compose and play their way to a more inclusive future. Thanks to public funding and the work of talented teachers and practitioners, that vision is possible.”

Notes: About South Coast Music Partnership

South Coast Music Partnership will be led by:

Each organisation represents and serves the children and young people of the unique communities it belongs to. As a partnership, we are working together to make music more inclusive and more accessible to all children and young people, whatever their background or circumstances.

The geography of all 43 of the new larger Music Hubs across England was defined as part of the Music Hub Investment Process by Department for Education / Arts Council England. The new South Coast Music Partnership covers the area known as ‘Solent, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’.

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. It has set out its strategic vision in Let’s Createby 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. It invests public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk.