Our Goals are Shaped by Our Values: Strategic Plan 2020-2025

Listening: Making music is a lifelong pursuit of joy and truth. Its foundation is listening. At CMW, we value listening as a practice of community, a practice of music, a practice of respect.

Equity and Responsiveness: We value the qualities of justice, equity, fairness, and welcoming which are the hallmarks of a culture of belonging.  

Creative Practice: We value each individual’s creative capability and contribution – – as musicians, as community members, and as citizens.

Continual learning: We value ongoing, reciprocal learning that is grounded in curiosity, humility, reflection, and open-mindedness. 

Love and Respect: We value a community where relationships are of the utmost importance and where people are recognized and honored as individuals with a unique voice.

Community MusicWorks (CMW) creates new roles for musicians as artists, educators, and citizens concerned with the well-being of our communities. Based in the rich context of the vibrant arts scene of Providence, RI since 1997, CMW has strong leadership, deep community connections, healthy finances, and an extensive network of alumni.

Our Strategic Plan for the next five years includes several initiatives that address our physical space, pedagogy and performance activities, our commitment to racial equity, and the deepening of our work in the many concentric circles of learning communities that touch our organization.

Plans to begin construction on a building of our own, the Community MusicWorks Center, represent a major turning point for the organization, and bring with it new possibilities in community building, along with a thoughtful approach to navigating the ways in which this building changes the landscape of our neighborhood.

CMW is nationally recognized and enjoys the camaraderie of like-minded groups around the country and globally. As the classical music field is changing to incorporate a wider range of professional avenues and to make the genre more accessible, responsive, and relevant to diverse audiences, CMW is seen as a forerunner in rethinking classical music’s roles in communities.  

As we embark on this new chapter, our work is happening against a backdrop of political divisiveness and deepening inequities, including an ongoing pandemic, that directly impacts our community. Thus, CMW’s longstanding commitment to racial equity work takes on an even greater urgency. We are buoyed by strengthening national discourse around racial justice and have set the course to deepening our own work in this area.

STRATEGIC AREAS OF FOCUS: 2020-2025

#1. OUR PLACE/OUR SPACE: BUILD A CULTURE OF BELONGING

Community MusicWorks is committed to creating a welcoming environment that builds a sense of belonging. This emphasis forms the basis of our teaching, performing, and community building relationships, and guides the creation of our new physical home. 

OBJECTIVES

• Engage parents, students, and neighbors in the planning of a facility that supports community connection and enhances the neighborhood’s musical life while honoring the history of the land on which it is built.
• Create a space that offers opportunities for youth to make music, build connections, and envision powerful futures.  
• Establish the Community MusicWorks Center as a place for residents of and visitors to Providence to find a supportive and engaging musical community.
  

—————————

#2. ANTI-RACIST PRACTICE: ADVANCE OUR COMMITMENT TO RACE EQUITY

CMW is committed to race equity and resisting the complicity and perpetuation of racism, especially in the area of classical music training and performance. Through continuous discovery, learning and commitment to the process, our work will address power dynamics as they relate to individual and collective experiences of students, teachers, staff, and the community. 

OBJECTIVES

• Integrate our commitment to racial equity into our pedagogy and performance. 
• Identify and undo racist practices by changing systems, organizational structures, policies, practices and attitudes so that power is redistributed and shared equitably. 
• Work toward an increasingly diverse leadership and teaching staff at CMW. 
• Define an antiracist framework to support the development of young people across the MusicWorks Network.

————————————–

#3. OUR LEARNING COMMUNITY: CULTIVATE RECIPROCAL LEARNING

CMW is committed to continued learning and sharing regarding the impact, value, and practice of musician residencies in communities. We spark and support conversations around integrating music education, performance, and social justice practice and aim to nurture a diverse and vibrant community of practitioners. 

OBJECTIVES

• Establish new ways of supporting young professional musicians’ learning in and with CMW.
• Support ongoing learning and growth of all staff.
• Continue to be a responsive and active participant, convenor, facilitator, and thought leader in the larger field, nationally and internationally. 
• Share stories of CMW’s programmatic approaches so that people at large are aware of the impact of our programs.

 ———————————–

#4 PEDAGOGY AND PERFORMANCE: AMPLIFY CREATIVE VOICE

CMW’s distinctive pedagogical and performance practices are deeply informed by our commitment to social justice. We support the passions and professional development of our teaching artists, encourage the engagement and technical progress of our students, and deepen our responsiveness to our community and audiences. 

OBJECTIVES

• Support teachers to build a toolbox of anti-racist pedagogical practices and techniques that support 
• student agency, with a focus on improvisation and composition.
• Engage CMW alumni and other community musicians as teachers, role models and eventually, leaders in the program. 
• Explore the full range of musical voices in the concert tradition, and apply an anti-racist and anti-oppression lens to our performance planning and practice.
• Commission music that integrates performance, pedagogy, social justice goals, and expands the MusicWorks Collective’s concert life through opportunities to perform around and outside New England.