Firstsite, Colchester, has been awarded a £17,000 grant to support an experimental music project for musicians in Colchester and the surrounding areas.
The grant, which was awarded by the National Foundation for Youth Music, was made to the gallery to support its experimental music club, CLIP. The money will be used to fund a weekly meet up at Firstsite, as well as monthly sessions at Essex Youth Service’s Townhouse, where young musicians will experiment with music and sound to build empathy and confidence through improvisation and performance.
CLIP, which is run by local sound artists Simon Keep and Frazer Merrick, was formed in 2015. It is one of several groups that began at Firstsite as part of Circuit – a national programme led by tate and funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation from 2013 – 2017, connecting young people to the arts in galleries and museums.
Previous CLIP projects include working with Colchester Zoo to record their noisiest inhabitants for use in an installation at Firstsite during the two-week Flipside festival in 2016, as well giving performances involving the audience eating popping candy. The group encourages young musicians to embrace improvisation – often a frightening prospect for those starting out – using these ‘musical experiments’ as a way of encouraging participants to take risks and build confidence.
Young people need no equipment or musical knowledge to join in the CLIP activities; the sessions encourage good listening skills more than musical ability.
