ANNUAL REPORTS

2020 was a year that in every way could not be foreseen: With a more or less normal start, it would turn out to be different from March – the corona pandemic found entry not only abroad, but also Denmark. In an international context, we moved project management and partner meetings onto the virtual Zoom service in the Creative Europe projects MoSaIC and LIBERTY, while the implementation of our Nordic talent development project Young Nordic Star managed to escape the restrictions before the outbreak back in February.

Locally and regionally, Swinging Europe as an institution engaged with the music scene in Herning, as working internationally roved to be problematic; the local-based project Museum as Muse combined Herningsholm’s historic setting with electronic music production during the lockdown, while MOORJAZZ Festival 2020 took a corona-friendly form with a series of concerts with well-known names and up-and-coming musicians spread over various venues over a week.

We took the initiative to get live music out to isolated elderly people at the care centers in Herning Municipality with Mental Health concerts during the summer, to both get professional musicians to work, al in the same breath as we took vulnerable people into account – with social distancing and hand-sanitizer. Likewise, 70 children had the opportunity to have fun and experience playful live music at full blast at Fermaten, when we arranged a children’s concert with the band Ørehængerne to great joy.

In a regional context, the second installation of the project The Artist Revisiting – The Dancer Revisiting – paved the way for day care institutions with three dancers from the Black Box Dance Company, as the cultural encounter with toddlers directly created mutual creative inspiration between artist and children. PLAY!GROUND LIVE 2020 took place, however under new circumstances and we participated as an active stakeholder in the revitalization of local cultural life with HerningErKultur’s reopening manifesto.

2019 was a year defined by a combination of international, national, regional and local initiatives in relation to our projects, which consisted of equal parts launching, as well as execution and facilitation; internationally, the network project NIMPE ended, the intercultural collaborative project MoSaIC took shape to a greater extent, and locally, Swinging Europe as an institution brought a music festival back to Herning Municipality, when the first installation of the jazz festival MOORJAZZ Festival took place on 9th October at HHHerning. Jazz was not abandoned this time: The project Jazz Music Revisiting realized a musical cultural meeting between young children, professional jazz musicians and nursery teacher students from VIA University College in Ikast and Horsens. Six Danish jazz musicians went to daycares and kindergartens to collaborate with the children to create new and unique musical results through the reintroduction of jazz music.

PLAY!GROUND LIVE offered a special edition: exclusively selected young musicians from previous years’ orchestras attended a full day of celebration in the Italian city of Matera, as it was honoured as of European Capital of Culture at the beginning of the year. Along with a number of other bands from all over Europe, PLAY!GROUND LIVE musicians played concerts in the cultural year in various locations, both under an open sky and at specific venues.

Internationally, our intercultural collaboration project, MoSaIC, unfolded with introductory workshops, where our competent nine female musicians from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Iran, Kurdistan and Syria had the opportunity to meet each other, rehearse together, and played their first concert at MOORJAZZ Festival. Furthermore, the Nordic tone was played with when twelve young musicians from Denmark, Finland, Åland and Greenland went on a Scandinavian tour in connection with the talent development project Young Nordic Stars. Together with musician and artistic director Kenneth Dahl Knudsen, social and competence development were equally demanded when the tour brought them out on country roads and further out on the waves of the sea.

In addition, our new intercultural Erasmus+ project, humARTS: Creatively Interpreting Human Rights was carried out in 2019 and a new Creative Europe project, LIBERTY, was cemented with the first partner meetings in Englang and Italy, respectively.

Regionally, we carried out a dance workshop and rap workshop at the Herning Cultural Festival with the sub-theme Closer to the Sun; attended Culture in the Dark; participated in conferences, workshops and cultural meetings focusing on European cultural resources, children’s early cultural formation, and the further development of intercultural projects.

Yet again this year, a new installation of PLAY!GROUND LIVE toured around the country to play for old and young people, and we visited the Culture Meeting at Mors, to network and experience cultural events in a national context.

Internationally, we took the first steps to our big intercultural collaboration project MoSaIC with a kick -off partner meeting from the 15th – 16th November in Milan, in which we will be a partner. MoSaIC – short for Music for Sound Integration in the Creative Sector – will involve refugees and migrants in European society through music as a storytelling device across nationalities and languages. In connection with NIMPE, we participated in the Nimpe Music Factory during the Linecheck Festival with up-and-coming Danish musicians from the 22nd – 24th November.

Furthermore, we travelled to Greenland in May to meet with our partner, The Orphanage Uummannaq, in connection with the Nordic project Young Nordic Stars. In addition, our new intercultural Erasmus+ project, humARTS: Creatively Interpreting Human Rights, was approved by Erasmus+ and will be facilitated in the summer of 2019.

The year 2017 was defined by a European sign in relation to Swinging Europe’s continued work with network-creating projects within the international cultural world. Not only in the shape of our projects, but also in the creation of collaborative collaborations across geographical boundaries, exciting developments took place both at home and abroad.

Regionally, we again participated in Culture in the Dark’s annual event, Kultur i Mørket, where artist Lord B told about sustainability for children and childish souls, while the initiative InVITAtion Lab continued to travel around the central and western Jutland municipalities to involve young people in the local community to be active citizans through creative problem solving. Likewise, the big cultural festival – Off Road Festival – was celebrated with a blast in April, where Swinging Europe contributed with the trio Migrant Music and the new pilot project, PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC, who played various concerts for the audience.

Internationally, in 2017 we launched several collaborative projects that engaged in the interdisciplinary field; The Erasmus+ project Culture ShoX, took place in Cyprus and Herning, as it tested the opportunities of using theater and music as a creative mouthpiece between young Europeans and immigrants. Results and experiences from the intercultural project were subsequently presented at the Tools conference in Herning from 29th – 30th November, where we participated as facilitating partners. During the two conference days, a film collage from the youth camps was shown to a wide audience, which consisted of national and international representatives from the field of culture.

2016 was an inspiring and cultural year for Swinging Europe. Not only in the shape of our projects, but also in the creation of network connections and collaborations, there was exciting development both regionally, nationally and internationally with the need to develop, strengthen and launch projects, among other things, interdiscipli-nary collaborative projects. Regionally, InVITAtion Lab unfolded in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality and the seeds for the project Migrant Music were sown.

Nationally, 2016 was the year that Swinging Europe’s annual talent development orchestra, PLAY!GROUND LIVE, with international musician Bo Stief at the forefront, was able to celebrate its 15th anniversary. It was also the year that initiated the further development of the same music concept, which will culminate in an unpreceden-ted Nordic version of the orchestra next year, namely PLAY! GROUND LIVE NORDIC. At the same time, Swinging Europe planned, coordinated and developed several new international projects, including the Erasmus + project Culture ShoX, the Ukrainian collaborative project, Sound Becomes Life, and the European network concept, NIMPE.

2015 was an eventful year for Swinging Europe. As an organisation, we have a good tradition of working both locally, nationally and internationally. 2015 was no exception, where we carried out many activities both at home and abroad. Internationally, we had several projects and networking activities in Poland, Slovenia, Sweden and Brussels, respectively.

2014 was a dynamic and eventful year for DSI Swinging Europe. It is now the fourth year that we as an organisation are working locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, and at this time, the status is mapping out new paths, as well as other projects have been removed from the drawing board. But even though a number of projects have been rethought and re-evaluated since their inception, the tradition and goal is still to work both locally and with an European aim with cultural projects.

Nationally, the project Borderless has been a new successful project that fills a niche in the Danish music scene, which has been evident by the many talented newcomers in Denmark, just waiting to be activated.

Bringing the world to Herning and bringing Herning out into the world became the motto for 2013. Since the transfer from Brande Municipality in 2010, the cultural institution has worked purposefully to develop the local activities while spreading the knowledge of our institution international. Thus, the year opened with a D-A-D concert in China and later in the year, we co-organised the International Association of Schools of Jazz meeting, which took place in Herning and Aarhus. No less than 20 nationalities were gathered during the week the meeting lasted. It was both an inviting musical experience for both participants and the audience who showed up in Herning and Aarhus.