During this year of crisis, many schools continued to invite artists to run music creation workshops for students. The Fabriques à musique (Music Factories) project, initiated by Sacem, demonstrated once again the benefits of musical education for children. All that is missing is the political ambition to permanently establish artistic and cultural education in the school curriculum.
Classrooms are one of the last places where you can listen to live music, "reports Pia Galloro, head of cultural action for the Ensemble intercontemporain. An incongruous paradox. While concert stages and music clubs have been forced into silence in recent months, primary schools, middle schools and high schools have continued to welcome authors, composers and performers for invigorating sessions of musical creation. "Even if there are material obstacles linked to the health context, this work can continue and these sessions become rare and precious moments. It is good for the children and it is good for all of us in the team that this project has been able to run despite the restrictions."
What are Fabriques à chansons? Created in 2015 by the Sacem, Song Factories consist of inviting a songwriter to six, two-hour workshops to create a song with students so they can understand the whole creative process. At the end of the process, a public performance of the composition is organised in professional conditions, in a partner theatre. These workshops are, above all, teaching opportunities where we explain what happens behind the scenes of creation and the music professions. Students get the opportunity to learn about the life of an artist, fame, the economic model — and they get a primer on the concept of intellectual property.
Sacem's flagship initiative
"With the crisis, many artists today would love to work in schools. Developing the music factories on a massive scale would kill two birds with one stone: we could save artists with artistic and cultural education (EAC), which is also essential for children," says Christine Lidon, an author, composer and performer. For artists, the EAC represents both a professional diversification and an opportunity to experience teaching, which many consider an essential dimension of the artist's role. Jean-Christophe Onno, a film score composer, testifies to this: "Transmission is a central subject for me, I have always loved pedagogy. A musician's work is essentially about emotions, so my role is to tell children to listen to their emotions and that is a political act." Dominique Dalcan, an electronic music artist, agrees: "I believe very much in the artist as a cultural mediator and, more broadly, I believe very much in the artist positioned at the centre of society: it is essential to share another way of conceiving of the world. In my artistic work, I devote a lot of time to raising awareness among young people."
Sacem's flagship EAC programme, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, is increasingly successful. The Fabriques à musique, acclaimed by the teaching world, have opened up to various musical aesthetics and have become, in the space of a few years, a reference in terms of educational projects at different levels of schooling. Sacem has tripled the resources allocated to help expand the programme. From one hundred Fabriques à chansons when it was launched in 2015, it was offering two hundred and thirty at the start of the 2020 schoool year. That means nearly one thousand artists were performing throughout France for more than twenty-four thousand pupils.
Developed on the initiative of Jean-Noël Tronc shortly after his arrival at the helm of Sacem, the Fabriques à musique testify to the ambition of the authors' society in terms of EAC and reaffirm its unwavering commitment to musical practice. And in the context of the last few months, the Fabriques have been particularly resilient: "During this period of confinement, the flexibility and creativity shown by the artists, the cultural structures, the venues, the teachers and the students, in order to maintain the projects — all of this has allowed new forms of work to flourish, opening up a new space for experimentation with children's imagination. In this context, Sacem, more than ever, has been able to listen and to set up almost tailor-made support for all the Fabriques. The next edition, which will start in September, will be even stronger and more enlightened in its commitment," says Bernadette Bombardieri, head of the Young Audiences Department, who is responsible for the design of this programme and the principle of co-construction on which it is based. The abundant programme of performances at the end of this school year attests to the vitality of the workshops conducted and the collective commitment of artists, cultural venues and the national education system to make EAC a priority.
"It is up to the national education system to take over"
The scope of the EAC goes beyond purely pedagogical questions by acting on the building up of the individual while producing a sense of community. In light of the crisis we are experiencing, this ambition is particularly relevant. Mourad Mabrouki, who put mediation at the heart of the Espace Django project in Strasbourg, measures its effects every day: "We are trying to open up horizons for the children all over France, to provoke them and awaken their critical thinking. My office is overflowing with drawings and thanks from the children, and the teachers tell us about the curiosity and new skills that it awakens in their pupils. It is decisive for self-confidence, mastery of language — it is very beneficial both on a pedagogical and personal level." International institutions are even passing on the message: "The arts will be a prime tool to help rebuild our mental health after the crisis," the World Health Organization recently stated, after publishing a report in late 2019 describing the beneficial impact of art on our physical and mental health.
This recognition raises the question of public commitment to developing an ambitious artistic and cultural education policy that is up to the challenge. Edgard Garcia, founder of the Zebrock association, which works in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, sums it up in his own way when he talks about the Fabriques à musique:
"In terms of political results, it is remarkable what the Fabriques have achieved in five years: These issues are really starting to resound in the public arena and have brought many people in the country on board. Now it is up to the national education system to take over and develop the project on a large scale. We need to bring music into schools on a massive scale, it's time for it to become a norm."
Emmanuelle Jeanne
From 100 Fabriques à chansons at the programme's launching in 2015, Sacem was offering 230 for the 2020 school year, or nearly 1,000 artists taking part all over France for more than 24 000 students.
Published October 21 2021