On Thursday, May 28, from 3:30 to 5pm (EDT), join the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community and the Canadian New Music Network for a fourth virtual professional development session for participatory music practitioners. this session invites you to explore the possibilities of social enterprise in creating sustainable community music programs, and learn from our special guests: Lisa Michaels (Executive Director and Co-Founder, Bandology) and Erin Parkes (Executive Director and Founder, Lotus Centre for Special Music Education).

This free talk is part of the Professional Development Series: Grow your career in Participatory Music. Sessions are held online every two months.

Registration for the virtual session is free. The Zoom link will be emailed to you a few days in advance.

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The Canadian New Music Network is excited to call for Participatory Creative Music Projects to be hosted on the online Participatory Creative Music Hub. Successful applicants will be provided funding for documentation of an existing project.

Amount of grant: $600.00

Application deadline: February 27, 2026

Application form

Deadline for submission of documentation of chosen projects via online upload form: May 1, 2026.

What is Participatory Creative Music? 

According to the Canadian New Music Network’s Public Engagement Committee, Participatory Creative Music is a multitude of approaches to creating music in which everyone involved, regardless of their prior experience in making music, has active input in the creative process. Authorship and decision-making is shared to greater or lesser degrees, depending on context.

For more information and clarification, see Keyword Definitions.

What is the Participatory Creative Music Hub?

The Hub showcases people from all walks of life creating music together. Whatever you call it – participatory creative music, community music, jamming, co-composition, improvisation, music exploration, listening games or having fun with sound – The Hub celebrates music creativity for everyone. 

The main criteria for projects is that all participants have active input in the creative process, whether they are 4, 40 or 94 years of age, an experienced musician or making music for the first time.

What is an eligible project?

An eligible project is a participatory creative music activity already occurring in the community, whether on-going or completed. Projects may take place in the fields of health care, education, social services, prisons and more. 

While not exclusive to this participant group, we would like to encourage submissions of projects occurring with children and youth in the community, including intergenerational projects. Projects outside of formal school settings are strongly encouraged, including those projects that serve children and youth in exceptional circumstances. Examples of participants include, but are not restricted to:

• Newcomer families in community centres,
• Street-affected youth groups or group homes, 
• Patients ages 3–5 years of age in children’s hospitals, 
• and more!

Eligible projects are wide and varied. Priority will be given to facilitators who are submitting a project to the Hub for the first time.

See the Project page for examples of Hub projects. 

See Keyword Definitions for terminology.

Documentation

The purpose of this grant is to support documentation of an existing PCM project to provide inspiration and tools for user groups of the Hub to make their own music. It is crucial that documentation is instructional in nature, rather than promotional. Links to biographical information via a CNMN member page and external links are possible on the project webpage.

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