Play Who You Are: Learning From a Decade of Community Improvisation

Abstract

For ten years, the Guelph-based Play Who You Are project (PWYA) has been bringing world-class improvising musicians into creative collaboration with children and youth with special needs. Through a series of workshops, the musician-facilitators work to develop the youths' musical skills, confidence, and self-expression. They then work together to create a set of musical pieces which they present during the Guelph Jazz Festival. Research by Improvisation, Community and Social Practice and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation has explored a range of topics including the short- and long-term impacts of improvised arts participation; pedagogical approaches to teaching improvised music in community settings; the therapeutic role of improvised creative practices; and the impact of PWYA's improvisation programming on community cohesion. The findings demonstrate how (and to what extent) improvisational arts-based practices contribute to the development and flourishing of healthy communities in Guelph. Specifically, the research explores and analyzes the ways in which these practices help local special needs communities, and their neighbours, produce new understandings of identity, history, memory, and the body.