International Guitar Foundation and Festivals

International Guitar Foundation and Festivals (IGF) is the UK’s go-to organisation for anything to do with the guitar. It organises festivals, concerts, workshops, undertakes outreach, commissions new music and develops audiences. They applied for funding to take their Guitar Circus education project into Wales for the first time to schools in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. 

The project involved training for young artists to deliver education work, performances by professional musicians in school, workshops over a six-week period for children to play and create their own music and the training of school teachers and subject leaders. The project culminated in a final performance that was heard by over 600 school children.

The impact of the project can be summed up by a Deputy Head who said “This is such a deprived area. Many children have never been across Newport let alone gone to a concert or the theatre, so it’s amazing for them to have this opportunity to listen to professional live musicians here in school.”