Common Ground Music Workshops

We began our work delivering music workshops for the refugee and asylum seeker community in 2023. We received funding from York Cultural Wellbeing Grants 2023 (Make it York & City of York Council, funded by the NHS Better Care Fund) with support from Refugee Council and York City of Sanctuary to deliver a series of workshops in 2023-2024; this also involved funding from the University of York and Refugee Action York for participation in York's Refugee week (June 2024). We have also obtained funding from the University of York to enable us to research our work, and we have given an invited talk: 'Art as a Creative Springboard: from Monet to music' for the 'In Conversation' series at the City of York Art Gallery, June 2024, as well as a research seminar at the University of York, December 2024.  From 2024-25 our work was funded by the Centre for Modern Studies at the University of York for a project in conjunction with the Book of Refugees, which enabled workshops at Kings Manor and Clements Hall in York. We also participated in the York Festival of Ideas, 2025, and held a networking event in June 2025 to bring people together, showcase a workshop, and discuss ways to develop workshops, research and training.

We are passionate about enabling our participants to work collaboratively, sharing their culture, and engaging in stimulating and high-quality artistic workshops that bring people together. 

We are musicians Bethan Kelly, Laura Sutcliffe, Liz Haddon, Marianna Cortesi, and Federico Pendenza. Bethan and Laura are music graduates from the University of York who are working in varied musical and creative areas in York and surrounding areas. Liz, Marianna and Federico are academic staff at the School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of York . 

Our first article on our work will be published in the academic journal 'Music and Arts in Action' later in 2025.