Leeds Conservatoire is pleased to announce a £116,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help create, secure, and develop a sustainable and accessible musical archive.
This grant comes at a pivotal time, as Leeds Conservatoire (formerly Leeds College of Music) celebrates 60 years of delivering pioneering music education, and helping shape and support the musical landscape in Leeds and beyond. The funds will ensure that the conservatoire can keep playing a collaborative role in preserving valuable history, while continuing to be future focused.
Support from the Heritage Fund will ensure that important stories are not lost. It will allow the conservatoire to formally create an archive to capture stories and materials since its beginning in 1965, and work with key stakeholders to surface and elevate musical memories from across Leeds.
The celebration of 60 years of the conservatoire is the perfect backdrop in which to engage current partners and create new relationships, surfacing important stories from underrepresented communities, discussing and researching their contributions to the culture of music in the city. A variety of activities will bring music practices to new communities and age groups, through volunteer training, music workshops and the capturing of oral histories.
Professor Joe Wilson, Principal of Leeds Conservatoire, said:
“We are delighted to receive support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to secure and develop our archive. It will help to create some exciting outreach and engagement activities to share and surface important stories, and collaborate with the communities of Leeds.”
Helen Featherstone, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“As Leeds Conservatoire celebrates its 60th anniversary, we’re thrilled to be supporting them to develop their archive. Thanks to National Lottery players the conservatoire can preserve this fantastic heritage and ensure that it will be accessible to all.”
Leeds Conservatoire will be delivering a variety of archive, musical and story driven activities throughout the year, with further details available on the website.
