Community Arts

 
El Ensemble busca conectar e informar a todas las personas que están comprometidas con la educación musical de conjunto para el empoderamiento de los jóvenes y el cambio social.

From Program to Public Infrastructure: The Evolution of Dream Arts

06-03-2026

When we first designed the Dream Orchestra in 2010, we saw “isolation” as one of the most urgent conditions in children’s lives. At the time, the intensity of college entrance competition had already reached elementary school, and many children were being pushed into highly competitive, lonely environments.

Fifteen years later, children’s lives have not become easier. They remain caught in the competitive trap of the education system while social and economic inequality continues to deepen their vulnerability. Declining physical and mental wellbeing, weakened community ties, and the replacement of direct relationships with media-based activities have also left them increasingly disconnected.

In Their Words: The Flying Carpet Festival’s Sahba Aminikia

06-03-2026

Late last year, the Flying Carpet Festival was honored with an Aga Khan Music Award, given to organizations that display “exceptional creativity, promise, and enterprise in music performance, creation, education, preservation and revitalisation in societies across the world in which Muslims have a significant presence.” Founded in 2018, the Flying Carpet Festival is a traveling artist residency, or mobile festival, based in Southeast Turkey but operating in many of that region’s conflict areas. Having first covered their work last year, The Ensemble recently spoke with Founder Sahba Aminikia about receiving the award, working in areas of conflict and displacement, and how he is learning and growing alongside the program.

EDITORIAL
The Stories We’re Speaking Into

04-01-2026

Across the field of music for social impact, a lot of energy goes toward communication: Tell your story. Build your evidence base. Find the right combination of data and narrative, and you’ll finally get the support or decisions you’re seeking.

I work across sectors on exactly these goals: helping organizations design research studies that reflect their unique approaches and articulate their impact in ways that actually land. So I get it: refining communication is valuable work.

But it’s not the full picture. And our failure to see that full picture keeps us from igniting the changes we value. 

Arts Communities Drive Manchester Forward

12-03-2025

“We do things differently.” That’s the motto of Manchester, England—and if you’re walking through the city, it doesn’t take long to see that it prides itself on its innovation and creativity. I’ve been fortunate to spend my 20s here, learning from the legacies of changemakers both past and present. So many of the city’s most impactful figures have been—and still are—artists working directly with communities.

Inspired by the people, creatives, and communities around me, I spent the second half of my 13 years in Manchester founding The Untold Orchestra, a “non-classical” collaborative orchestra that centers community engagement. But this piece isn’t about Untold. It’s about an Art City—that is, a place where arts interventions are prioritized and supported by the people who live there, and then rewarded with community, creativity, and positive social change.

The Arts of Dream Begin with Children’s Dreams

06-04-2025

In both Korean and English, the word dream carries layered meanings. It can refer, first, to the images and sensations we experience during sleep; second, to the hopes and ideals we wish to realize; and third, to a fleeting illusion or unrealistic fantasy.

When I was designing the framework for the Theater of Dreams last year, I leaned into the second meaning—the kind of dream filled with high ideals.

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