Spotlight On – Musical Minds

This month the Spotlight is On: Musical Minds

Musical Minds was launched by the Jaffa Institute in 2001, from a belief that all children no matter their background, talent or socio-economic status, have the right to a musical education. Working with children from some of the poorest neighborhoods in Israel, the program introduces them to instruments that they have never seen before and also teaches lessons of inter-cultural awareness, self-expression and communication through the medium of the arts.

Musical Minds takes places at multiple sites in Jaffa and south Tel Aviv. At the Jaffa Institute’s After-School Centers or Moadoniot, that are designed to keep at-risk children off the streets, Musical Minds allows children to come together for musical sessions that focus on social well being and cooperative learning. The children, who come from 15 different elementary schools, have the opportunity to learn instruments such as the guitar, darbuka, strings, keyboard, xylophone and brass instruments. In 2010 a new project began entitled the ‘Wider Singing’ program that encourages children to write their own songs. Their songs are then recorded with the help of musical professionals to make professional tracks. The Musical Minds team also travels to schools to teach kindergarten and first grade classes early lessons of music education.

This year the Jaffa Institute has been actively involved in an international research study, ‘In Harmony’ that enables children in the United States to connect with Israeli children through innovative new technology and arts education. The study includes 40 children from the Jaffa Institute’s Pahad Yitzhak after-school activity center and the Shorashim School and 23 children from Bloomington, Indiana. The project creates online communities that connect culturally diverse populations through arts projects and cross-cultural discourse.

The Musical Minds program has been uniquely designed with partners, including the Music Division of Bar Ilan University’s Yehuda Amir Institute for Advancement of Social Integration in Education and the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation - a network of 12 international programs that promote cross-cultural exchanges, to maximize the emotional, developmental and social benefits of arts education.

For more information on Musical Minds contact Adena Portowitz, Israel National MUS-E Coordinator at adenap2@gmail.com.