A new charity has been launched, Independent Venue Community (IVC), that will showcase the potential of live music venues as cultural and creative hubs, while building and fostering a national programme of daytime activities connecting local communities.
Established by Sybil Bell, Founder and CEO of Independent Venue Week, IVC sets out its stall with a brand new pilot project in the East of England, allowing young people the opportunity to experience behind-the-scenes at a gig.
Delivered in partnership with Arts Council England and local Music Education Hubs, these Soundcheck Sessions will run before venue doors are open to the public, giving participants from local schools, colleges and youth groups the chance to speak with artists, technical crew and staff and learn more about the live music industry.
Participating venues include The Smokehouse, St Stephens Church and The Baths in Ipswich, The Portland Arms (Cambridge), The Hunter Club (Bury St Edmunds), The Met Lounge (Peterborough), and Epic Studios, Norwich Arts Centre and Voodoo Daddy’s in Norwich – with more to follow. The pilot will run from Autumn 2024 to Spring 2025 and is expected to expand into a nationwide programme later next year.
As well as reaching out to young people, IVC programming is focused on a range of social prescribing activity, targeting various demographic groups, including parents and toddlers, deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people, the LGBTQIA+ community, the older generation and those looking for mental health and well-being support.
IVC’s Practitioner partners include Help Musicians, BAPAM, Tonic Music Rider, Gig Buddies, Attitude is Everything, the Featured Artists Coalition, the Music Managers Forum, and Come Play With Me.
Other initiatives planned by IVC include: Parent and toddler gigs, ‘Be’ program for young people giving them more in depth knowledge and training from across the music industry to help fill the growing skills gap and meet the talent pipeline. ‘Just Ask’ supporting promoters to ask about access requirements of artists and making it an industry standard question, in advance of a gig or festival performance – taking the burden away from disabled artists . Gig Buddies shows both for audiences and artists with learning disabilities
Peer Support mental health sessions for artists and crew facilitated by a psychotherapist.
Side By Side, a series of LGBTQIA+ inclusion sessions, developing understanding of LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences to help work towards a more inclusive industry within music venues. GROW, an environmental project, where IVC bring planters into unused outside spaces at venues to grow plants, flowers and edibles. These garden areas offer opportunities for various local community groups such as the older generation, parents and toddlers and those with mental health challenges, to come together, share knowledge, gain skills, and have a sense of purpose whilst nurturing green spaces and new relationships.
“Independent venues are vital to the UK’s creative and cultural fabric,” Sybil Bell, IVC’s founder, said. “So many towns and cities in the UK have a venue where local people can come together and enjoy music and the arts. From our experiences with Independent Venue Week, we believe passionately that they have potential – in day time hours – to deliver even more.”
“Our ambition with Independent Venue Community is to realise that potential. By doing so, we can use our existing cultural spaces and help them to grow their business in their downtime and increase their engagement with various local community groups. We also aim to inspire more venues to throw open their doors outside of nighttime hours, to build new programming strands that can engage with new or underrepresented audiences. At a time when so many local community spaces have disappeared I believe that IVC can help deliver meaningful change through our existing independent venue infrastructure.”
IVC’s board of trustees includes respected individuals in the music business, including Yolanda Brown OBE, Maggie Crowe OBE, the BPI’s Director of Events & Charities, Kris Halpin artist and disability activist (aka Dyskinetic), JJ Tatten, CEO of The Warren, and Stephanie Hardwick (Hardwick & Morris).
“As a Trustee of the Independent Venue Community, I’m incredibly proud to support the launch of this charity at such a crucial time. Music venues are uniquely positioned to make a meaningful difference in so many lives by providing inclusive, accessible environments where people can come together, find support and have fantastic experiences,” Yolanda Brown, OBE, who recently opened the Soul Mama venue in London, said. “With the support of IVC, local music venues can be transformed into hubs of connection and well-being, creating vital opportunities for relationship building and positive change and helping to strengthen the bonds that hold communities together.”
“The launch of Independent Venue Community fills me with much hope as the CEO of a grassroots community organisation that is joined at-the-hip with one of the UK’s most iconically vital venues – The Adelphi in Hull,” JJ Tatten, CEO of The Warren Youth Project in Hull, and another IVC Trustee, said. “It’s just one star in a constellation of enormous potential across the UK – something we desperately need in times of division. These venues have done more for our collective wellbeing in snapshot moments than anything the doctor has ever prescribed – now imagine all those venues, empowered to throw their doors open throughout the day for those communities to come together and get what they need. It’s social-prescribing writ large and the possibilities are endless.”
Joe Bailey, CEO of Ipswich-based not-for-profit venue operator, Brighten The Corners, added: “We are proud to be partnering with Independent Venue Community and their Soundcheck Sessions pilot at our venues in Ipswich. We have high levels of need for youth provision in our area and it’s really important that young people are made aware of opportunities in an industry which often seems misrepresented, mystical or impenetrable. The music industry workforce is still recovering post pandemic and many young people are suffering from poor mental health, self-esteem and a lack of real world connections. This project will help enable young people to have an insight into the industry, what roles and pathways to employment there are while making connections in an aspirational environment.”
