Current Status
On 20th July 2009, U2 announced its decision to contribute €5 million towards the national rollout of the Music Network model, and in May 2010 The Ireland Funds launched a campaign to raise a further €2 million to this end. This funding will enable the establishment of up to 12 further Music Education Partnerships around Ireland during the period 2010 – 2015. Although the Music Network report recommends a double-stranded model, which combines a curriculum support strand with provision for accessible instrumental and vocal teaching services, this philanthropic funding has been committed specifically to address the performance education dimension (i.e. instrumental and vocal tuition).
The programme is to be administered centrally by a subsidiary company of Music Network, yet to be incorporated (working title: The National Music Education Programme Ltd.). It is intended that incorporation will be completed within the next month. The board of this new company is to comprise two nominees each of U2, the Ireland Funds and Music Network. The nominees are as follows: Bill Whelan, Ellen Cranitch, Dr. Clíona Doris, Leo Blennerhassett, Dr. Danny O’Hare, Anne-Marie Power. The board will be chaired by Arts Consultant, Tony Ó Dálaigh. Rosaleen Molloy has been appointed Programme Director, and will commence her term of employment on 14th June 2010. She will be based in Music Network’s offices at The Coach House, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2.
The Programme Director’s role includes:
· Producing and implementing a strategic and business plan for the programme
· Responsibility for programme budgets and expenditure
· Devising and managing a competitive tender and selection process
· Managing the provision of funding to up to twelve local Music Education Partnerships (MEPs), and ensuring that the Partnerships comply with the terms of their funding agreements
· In cooperation with existing MEPs, promoting learning and exchange of experience through a peer network of local MEP managers
· Acting as the public face of the initiative, ensuring that it is communicated effectively to relevant publics and building relationships with relevant stakeholders nationally and locally
· Cooperating with colleagues in Music Network in initiatives designed to promote the mainstreaming of the model
· Consulting with external bodies in the public sector and otherwise, to promote broadly-based support for the longer-term sustainability of the scheme
· Undertaking other work at the direction of the Board, as required to ensure the success of the programme.
The experience of the pilot schemes (which have now been running for five years), and their published independent evaluation provide helpful guidance in mainstreaming the model, which will have the following features:
· It will provide instrumental and vocal music teachers in a range of genres and instruments in every part in the Republic, sometimes in fixed locations, sometimes operating on a peripatetic basis in a local area (not limited to county boundaries).
· The national funding can be used to subsidise or offset the cost of local administration/co-ordination, as well as teaching costs, making the associated services affordable to a wide range of children and young people.
· The project will be rolled out on a phased basis, most likely in three locations at a time, beginning in late 2010 or early 2011, reaching up to 12 areas in total.
· It will be offered on the basis of competitive tender: local/regional partnerships (including at least one local statutory authority, e.g. VEC, local authority, City/County Development Board) will be invited to bid for a three-year subsidy amounting to an average of €200,000 per annum to provide for the costs of teachers and local administration. Local partnerships must show how they will generate matching resources locally, and how they will plan to make the scheme sustainable in the longer term.
Tender guidelines and relevant documentation will be developed over the next number of months, after which time an initial call for tenders will be issued.
As issues of strategy and implementation of the National Music Education Programme are the responsibility of the board and Director of the new subsidiary company, the next stage of the programme’s development, including the development of tender documentation will be progressed following the incorporation of the new company, and when the Programme Director has taken up her position.
The subsidiary company will have the authority to appoint one or more expert technical committees to advise it in the effective delivery of its remit. It is likely that this/these committee(s) will include officials of the Department of Education & Science and The Arts Council, among others.
