Strategies for widening participation in folk arts: Reflections and experiences from seven European folk arts organisations and illustrated Notes from 'Increasing diversity in participatory cultural heritage performance' workshop

The Increasing diversity in participatory cultural heritage performance project brought together representatives from seven small and medium-sized folk arts organisations from across Europe. Together, we shared experiences of diversifying participation and the strategies used to attract a greater variety of people to get involved with folk arts and cultural heritage. Based at the University of Sheffield, the project built networks and created opportunities for partners to learn from each other's experiences. Participating organisations were: Canto Rovesciato (Italy), Folk You (Sweden), Rosslyn Court (England), Shtetl Berlin (Germany), Soundpost (England), Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, Wren Music (England).

This report is based on interviews with the partner organisations in the summer and autumn 2023 and discussions at our workshop in January 2024. Illustrated workshop notes were scribed by Chris Redford from Nifty Fox and summarise discussion from our final workshop in Sheffield 10 January 2024. The slides were translated by Esbjörn Wettermark (Swedish), Fiona MacDougall (Scottish Gaelic) and Ilaria Savini & Simone Faraoni (Italian).

The project was approved by the University of Sheffield ethical review process: 55315