International cooperation projects

Voices of Women (VOW)

Voices of Women (VOW) is a transnational educational project funded by the ERASMUS+ program. The project networks students and teachers to strengthen and secure the rightful place of women in historical, contemporary and future art production. VOW contributes to the EU's shared values of cultural awareness rooted in historical heritage, with women's works receiving their fair share of attention, analysis, interpretation and performance.

The project activities aim at the following outcomes:

  1. Performance of repertoire created by women composers in Europe (focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries).
  2. Training of students to actively advocate for change and for more frequent performance of repertoire, including the development and provision of teaching materials based on art experiments
  3. Creating proposals for curriculum redesign and social change in arts education
  4. Establishing a transnational network of art practitioners, researchers, and (political) actors who want to contribute to giving women their rightful place in the historical, contemporary, and future arenas of art production

     

Conference in Weimar, June 21-23, 2023

Flyer with program schedule (PDF)

Conference program (PDF)

Biographies of the project partners (PDF)


By developing and delivering educational materials based on experimentation with and through art, Voices of Women aims to pave the way for a connected, international, inclusive and innovative education for students.

VOW is based on the idea that in order to enable social innovation, we need to educate agents of change who can hear the "Voices of women" and work towards a more inclusive society. We propose to focus on the voices of women to illustrate the goals of educating future generations who will create knowledge for a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable society. In this way, we aim to contribute to gender balance in higher education institutions and beyond.

VOW will also provide research-based professional development opportunities for all Europeans interested in exploring the performative, theoretical, analytical, social, and pedagogical implications of gender equality. This will be achieved through the dissemination of information via project trainings and digitally streamed multiplier events to increase the impact of the project in the world of the arts and beyond.

#gender equality in the arts #European cultural heritage #cultural transfer #transnational relations #student education #educational experiments #co-design of teaching materials #agents of change.

Cooperation partner for the conference in Weimar in June 2023:

Consortium members

Biographies of the project partners

Germany:

Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar| University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar (HfM)

Netherlands:

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen| University of Groningen (RUG)

Norway:

Universitetet i Stavanger| University of Stavanger (UiS)

University of Tromsø| The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)

Events

  • June 22-24, 2022: Master classes at the University of Stavanger.
  • 1-3 December 2022: Conference at the University of Groningen
  • June 21-23, 2023: Conference at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar
  • June 22-24, 2023: Master classes at the University of Stavanger
  • November 20-24, 2023: Master classes and international outreach conference at the University Conservatory of Music in Tromsø
  • Spring 2024: Master classes, workshops and transnational project meeting in Weimar, Germany 
  • November 2024: Final conference with master classes and concerts in Stavanger

Publications

  • Mittner, L., Melin, L. K., & Maxwell, K. (forthcoming). How can art education contribute to reaching the Sustainable Development Goal ‘Gender Equality’ (SDG5)? Nordic Journal of Art & Research
  • Maxwell, K., & Eskeland, J. (forthcoming). Practising what we preach: Elise Hall and a more diverse saxophone performance curriculum. In K. Bertels & A. Honnold (Eds.), Contemporary Perspectives on the Legacy of Elise Hall (1853–1924)
  • Mittner, Lilli, Lise Meling, Janke Klok, and Bettina Smith. 2022. “Knowledge Base for the ERASMUS+ Project Voices of Women (VOW).” Septentrio Reports, no. 1 (November). https://doi.org/10.7557/7.6569 
  • McGee, Kristn. 2022. “Gendered Interventions in European Jazz Festival Programming: Keychanges, Stars, and Alternative Networks.” In J. Reddan, M. Herzig, and M. Kahr (eds.), Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender Routledge.
  • Maxwell, K., & Fosse Hansen, S. (2022). Decolonizing Music History in Scandinavia: Reflections from the Chalkface’. Special issue European Music Analysis and the Politics of Identity. Danish Musicology Online, 107–114. https://www.danishmusicologyonline.dk/arkiv/arkiv_dmo/dmo_saernummer_2022/dmo_saernummer_2022_european_music_analysis_06.pdf  

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