Project of the week - RETHINK Folk Music (Skanderborg)

RETHINK Folk Music will rethink the traditional and detect and create a common European identity. The project has its roots in Skanderborg and is a collaboration between museums and music and culture schools in seven municipalities in Central Denmark Region. And there have already been established international collaborations in Riga in Latvia and Umeå in Sweden, both of which are European Capitals of Culture in 2014.

Folk music is many, many centuries old. In this context, five years is not that much, but in the context of projects, it is a slightly different story. And five years ago, Julie Heebøll Clausen, who is the daily Head of School at Skanderborg Culture School and project manager for RETHINK Folk Music, was at a meeting at Cultural Ring East Jutland with colleagues from Favrskov, Norddjurs, Odder, Samsø and Syddjurs.

That day, she decided to rethink her own meeting culture and network with people from other cultural fields than her own. Therefore, she fell into conversation with some of the participating museum staff to learn more about their challenges. One of the museums' problems was that they found it difficult to attract young people, and this is precisely the age segment that music and culture schools have most of.

The idea for a project was born, where two types of cultural institutions together creates synergies and demonstrates the identity effect that folk music can have on people.

An archaeological survey
Folk music in Denmark is alive and kicking, and among children and adolescents are a growing interest in the music based on the traditions and our common roots.

The museums around the region holds a huge well-preserved national treasure of folk music notation material and it is this repertoire that is now being dusted off, when RETHINK Folk Music sends students from music schools out to 'research' as music archaeologists in their own local area. The idea is to open the eyes of young people to their heritage and put it in a contemporary frame.

"The traditional melodies and songs belong to us all, but it is far from anyone who knows how big a repertoire we actually have. With RETHINK Folk Music, students get help to dive in the museums’ archives and collections. They will both play and arrange the melodies and songs they find. This gives the young people a sense of their own cultural heritage, and it also gives the museums an opportunity to communicate the elements of that particular part of our History in a vivid way," says Julie Heebøll Clausen.

In addition to the collaboration with museums, folk music is also planted in the urban space to embody a culture that many still have yet to experience at first hand. The hope is that the concerts will help create citizen involvement and strengthen local identity.

Common European identity
But folk music is not only a local, regional or national matter. Not in the slightest. The music is perhaps heavily influenced by a certain place, but the music is often imported or exported and the national and international cannot be separated. So when we talk about our shared culture and our common roots, in reality we talk about our common European cultural heritage.

RETHINK Folk Music already has blossoming collaborations in the European Capitals of Culture Riga and Umeå, but the project also explores other places in Europe where there is opportunity to collaborate with cultural schools. One of the project's main ideas is that there will be international camps, but as of yet they know not where, when or how many camps there will be. Julie Heebøll Clausen explains:

"In folk music, people have always found musical inspiration across borders. We are already well underway to facilitate a number of international collaborations that intends to increase a shared sense of European identity through folk music. We want our students to have the opportunity to experience other countries’ folk music," says Julie Heebøll Clausen.

Facts:
• RETHINK Folk Music is funded by the Aarhus 2017 Foundation and ROSA - The Danish Rock Council.
• The project is a collaboration between museums and music and culture schools in 7 municipalities – Struer, Holstebro, Herning, Viborg, Silkeborg, Skanderborg and Aarhus (in the form of the Music School Laura).
• The project will start up in January with local workshops in Central Denmark Region. During the spring there will also be organized a number of events where students test their material on each other.
• You can follow the project on Facebook.
• RETHINK Folk Music has created two playlists on Spotify. One for the Day and one for the Night.