Communities Engagement Partner at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Guy O’Donnell was one of the speakers at the annual Arts Marketing Association Conference, Amplify in Edinburgh in July.
In the role of Communities Engagement Partner, Guy works on delivering a wide range of engagement activity, working across every aspect of the College with potential students, community groups, schools, colleges, audience members, partner organisations, decision makers and the wider public.
Guys presentation is shared below to give an overview of the work of the Department.
The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) is in a position to make a significant impact on the cultural accessibility and inclusion of people who may be facing barriers to engaging with live performances.
By actively supporting these audiences to work with their students, and share the creative outcomes on their stages and exhibitions, RWCMD has fostered a more inclusive, diverse, and collaborative environment that benefits both the participants and our students.
In this overview you can learn more about the work RWCMD has supported to develop;
- Demonstratable techniques to increase the diversity of audiences
- New ways to curate a cultural programme
- Ways to work with volunteers to increase attendance and income
After many audience development initiatives, audiences are still mainly white, well-educated, middle-class, and middle-aged. This lack of diversity makes it difficult to demonstrate the value of publicly funded cultural activity. It also raises doubts about how creative and lively the arts sector is and its genuine connection to the broader general public.
In this article I will outline the work of the Communities Engagement Department at RWCMD, to co-create, empower, and support active audiences who face barriers, offering them opportunities to work directly with our students. Our goal is to not only enhance the cultural engagement of these communities but to provide them with a meaningful platform to share their creativity, exchange ideas, and contribute to the training of our students.
The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, attracts the best creative talent from across the globe. As Wales’s national conservatoire, we fire imagination and drive innovation, offering training to more than eight hundred actors, musicians, designers, technicians, and arts managers from more than forty countries.
The College’s events calendar encompasses over five hundred public performances every year including orchestral concerts, recitals, drama, opera, and musical theatre. The creative diversity of the College ensures a stimulating environment and broad experience for students of all disciplines.
RWCMD is a space for everyone, through proactive measures, we seek to address barriers, promote diversity in all its forms, and cultivate a culture of belonging where everyone, has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
The mission of college is to be a space for everyone; the role of the Communities Engagement Partner works to support a greater range of students and the public to be aware of college and our work. In order to deliver on this mission When I first came into the role in Sep 22, I spent time learning about our live performance programme and meet with lots of staff and students and members of the public to get their views. What came across most strongly was the potential of our live cultural offer to open up conversations about access to the arts and it is a natural strength as the national conservatoire of Wales.
Using this information one of the first projects we developed was Calypso Jazz with The Windrush Cymru Elders
The Windrush Cymru Elders, led by Race Council Cymru, come from different areas across South Wales. They’re a proactive group of Elders who promote understanding of ethnic minority elders’ concerns and needs while celebrating key milestones and marking the contributions of people of African descent.
The group meets weekly, usually in the College, to enjoy each other’s company and take part in creative activities in and around Wales. The College and Race Council Cymru colleagues, provide support and meeting facilities for the group who use College as a community hub.
They collaborate with us on feedback and input to the What’s On performance programme. A range of colleagues and students from college have presented to the group to foster an understanding of the College’s work and develop links with The Windrush Community. Public performance is central to student learning, as is understanding a diverse range of audiences and their needs.
At the start of the new academic year, we have a large-scale concert led by jazz musician Dennis Rollins, supported by our students. Prior to the performance Dennis and staff, met members of The Windrush Elders to discuss their musical heritage, the conversations led to a co-created concert performance where our students and the Elders shared a stage, to a paying public, to celebrate Calypso Jazz.
The Elders have also been supported by college to join The Tempo Time Credit Network. Tempo Time Credits are an external UK wide organisation. They build local and national networks of organisations, bringing people together in their local communities to conduct valued and important voluntary work. Volunteers earn Tempo Time Credits as part of a reward and recognition scheme for the invaluable work they do within their communities. These Credits can be exchanged for a range of services and activities provided by their local and national Recognition Partners of which College is one.
The Elders earn two Tempo Time Credits volunteering their time as part of their weekly meetings, supporting their community. Most of the group have used their credits to see a college performance. As some of the Elders would find the physical cost of tickets a barrier, this collaboration benefits everyone involved.
Using their Time Credits the Windrush Elders have seen opera, drama and classical music. They have also brought their grandchildren to see Wearable Art, the costume showcase created and performed by Design for Performance students. This introduces tomorrow’s talent from a range of communities to the College and inspires them for future career possibilities in the creative industries.
Karen and Linda two of the Elders have used their Tempo Time Credits to see performances by South African musician Abel Selaocoe
They said of their Time Credit membership
‘Since coming to college, we have had the wonderful ability to earn Tempo Time Credits through volunteering our time to support our group, The Windrush Elders. This has opened up the possibility to use credits as reward payments for different things such as theatre shows or going to leisure centres.
At College, we’ve seen Abel Selaocoe, the jazz cello player twice, last December as part of a quartet and then again as part of an orchestra of violinists & cello players. We thought both performances were astounding and loved every minute.
Being able to attend these performances and be included with Abel’s audience participation was so lovely. We actually felt we were transported to his home country of South Africa! We are looking forward to future performances at college.’
Our Tempo Time Credit spend at RWCMD has increased year on year from,
• Sep 22-July 23 = the annual spend was 87
• Sep 23- July 24 = the annual spend was 184
• Sep 24- July 25 = the annual spend was 230
At College, the average café/bar spend by audience members per individual production is £10-15. If two hundred people spend £12.50 over one year, that is an additional £2,500 over the year. This shows supporting Time Credit spend is a great way to support secondary spend with in most cases no additional outgoings.
The Elders were also one of the groups involved in the RWCMD, Welcome to Wales Exhibition
Audiences from groups including Blind communities. The Homeless community and The Windrush Elders were supported to access a college exhibition called Welcome to Wales. The exhibition from by International theatre designer and RWCMD International Chair in Drama, Pamela Howard OBE was a free installation at the Old Library, in The Hayes in the centre of Cardiff , the exhibition was a unique retelling of poignant journeys and the welcome, Wales gave to so many artists, performers and musicians, including Pamela’s own ancestors.
The community groups attending the exhibition were supported by a diverse range of creative professionals to create their own creative outcomes based on the initial exhibition. The resulting work was exhibited in college alongside the work of our Production Design students. Creative outcomes included creative writing, poetry, songs, visual art, braille art and sculptures. This work was subsequently used as a teaching aid for our students when learning about inclusive programming.
RWCMD hosted the ‘Windrush Cymru – Our Voices, Our Stories’- history exhibition at the College as part of its tour, which also included the Senedd and National Museum Wales.
The project and resulting exhibition directly responded to a call from Elders of the Windrush Generation who wanted to ensure that their generation’s legacy is captured and retained for posterity.
Three of the Elders have received training to act on behalf of College as Community Volunteers. Our Community Volunteers spend time advocating amongst their own networks about performances at college. They have supported new attenders who I or Colleges traditional marketing would have had difficulty reaching.
In the summer of 2025, two of our Community Volunteers independently supported ten of the Elders to attend a showing of the Grenfell installation by Steve McQueen at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. This activity has shifted the traditional hierarchical process of accessing cultural provision, it democratises and empowers the communities we seek to reach. We aim to build on this work in the coming years.
To conclude as we are the College of Music and Drama, an illustration of community activity that brings together our students and members of the public who might be facing barriers in their lives centred around a celebration of musical activity.
The Good Vibrations Chorus is a free signing group targeted at those living with Parkinson’s but open to all. Chorus members take part in vocal exercises, warmups and sing both familiar and new songs with the intention of strengthening the voice to counteract the softening of speech and the loss of muscle tone common in Parkinson’s.
Singing has been shown to reduce Parkinson’s symptoms like tremor, and issues with walking and posture. This is because it helps to relax muscles and release tension in the back and neck. Singing can also help to reduce anxiety and low mood by lowering stress hormones and increases the brain’s ‘feel-good’ chemical (endorphins).
The Windrush Elders are supported to attend the Chorus, we are aware of a lack of diversity in Arts and Health initiatives, the Elders collaborate with us to support members of their own networks to attend.
Our Repertoire is broad and diverse; it contains traditional Choral music but also musicians such as Bob Marley to support the College mission of being a space for everybody.
The Chorus members have shared the comments below in relation to their membership;
It’s great. It’s like a jewel, really, that’s shining brightly. We’ve got the right people in positions, such as Josh and Dora, the tutors. Along with the complimentary package that we have with the students fulfilling their ambitions and their requirements at the same time is wonderful. There’s different layers to all of this, so it’s great. And the backing of the College and Parkinson’s Cymru, it’s great as well.
‘Thursdays are great because that means it’s a choir day! Hurrah! It really is the highlight of my week and I always look forward to our sessions. I sing with two other choirs but what I love about the Good Vibrations Chorus is the relaxed atmosphere and it’s good to get to know other people who are living with Parkinson’s. The choir is friendly and welcoming and Josh, our musical director, balances the rehearsals perfectly between singing and having a lot of fun. We always have a laugh. It’s such a tonic! It’s so uplifting and from a well-being point of view that’s immeasurable. All that wrapped up in a great big ball of joy is such a positive thing.’
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