Each year, the HSCEF, the Faculty’s flagship social responsibility fund, provides funding to several projects that aim to improve communities across Greater Manchester.

In 2024, Alex Shaw, Arts Administration Manager in the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, was a recipient of HSCEF funding. She used it to develop her successful programme of relaxed performances to make the arts venue as inclusive and accessible as possible for people across the city.

With the support of organisations, schools and libraries across Manchester, the diverse audience has continued to grow, and the Martin Harris Centre has become a safe space for visitors from all walks of life.

We spoke to Alex to find out more about what inspired her project, the impact it has had on the local community, and what she has planned for the future.

Can you tell us more about your project?

I came across a guide that the Alzheimer's Society had created about making your arts venue dementia-friendly and thought “we should be doing this already”. I did loads of research and met people who were doing relaxed performances in different venues and from that was born a three-pronged approach to how we would make ourselves dementia-friendly at the Martin Harris Centre.

First of all were people – I became a Dementia Friends Ambassador with the Alzheimer’s Society and started to roll out information sessions to as many of the stakeholders as possible.

The next thing I wanted to do was think about the environment. Dementia activist Joy Watson came in to audit our spaces – she has early-onset dementia and has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of Salford for her commitment to changing the future for dementia patients. From that, we looked at what could we do immediately to make us more dementia-friendly, like making a visual guide to the Centre to help people prepare themselves before visiting.

The last thing was to look at our events programming. We wanted to do something people with dementia would be familiar with, so opted for music. We went with a festive sing-along in a relaxed performance format to break barriers down for anyone who is intimidated by a concert hall or University space, and even the concert format itself.

We ran a successful event, but I also wanted to make the Centre more accessible and inclusive. We refreshed the visual guide, brought in a fantastic person called Gemma from Sign Me Happy to sign an event, and she brought in the BSL Signing Choir from Divine Mercy Primary School. We wanted to target more schools where maybe the kids are non-verbal and signing helps them.

I asked the Manchester Deaf Centre to audit the space and used their report to ensure we were more accessible to the D/deaf community. It also gave us the opportunity to do more marketing and branch out further afield, for example, to people in sheltered housing.

It makes a difference to people to give them a space to be themselves without judgement and it’s so powerful, the impact that has. That’s what this was about for me – engaging with our community.

What did you hope to achieve with your project?

The main goals were about the number of people involved, the number of people attending and the quality of the work. I wanted to make sure that we retained groups of people who were already engaged; but it was also important that we diversified our reach. I wanted some of the volunteers to be people who would have benefitted from this type of event when they were younger and to be part of the team that are leading it.

If we have a more diverse group working, it will help us to develop what our offer is. I think particularly as a creative space, we have to lead by example and show that it's for everybody. No matter who you are, when you leave the University and you go out into the world, you've got this really big, open, wide scope of opportunity.

How did your project support the University's social responsibility and civic engagement priorities?

The main things were community engagement, accessibility, outreach and legacy – how is it impacting other people and what they are doing?

I went to one of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s relaxed performances to find out what their approach was, and I spoke to Leeds Playhouse, formerly West Yorkshire Playhouse, who were one of the first to be doing relaxed performances. I shared everything I learnt with the Drama Society – part of the civic engagement was me thinking “what have I got that I can offer to help people?”

I also started to think about what else can I do as far as giving people access to this as something that they can give to and also get back from. That's when I went into the volunteer aspect of it, with students but also wider.

We’ve had people from the Careers Service who have volunteered, students have volunteered and logged their work on Stellify, graduates have come to support. It feels like a family coming together.

How was your project enhanced or inspired by our location in Greater Manchester?

Part of it came from me talking to different people within Manchester. I was aware of Manchester Camerata doing music projects around dementia, which was why I originally thought it needed to be something musical.

I had an Age Friendly Manchester meeting recently and I listened to what other people are doing around Manchester. I was really inspired and thought “I want to contribute to this, I want to be part of this conversation”.

Manchester is such a brilliant place. I've lived here a long time and I love it. I feel like in the world today we have a problem where it's all about the individual and actually, everyone would be better if we all thought a bit wider. If we can do little things in our day-to-day where we can influence, then maybe that will have an impact on someone else's life as well.

What has been the biggest impact that your project has had?

It's quite hard to just say one. We did increase the level of attendance and the diversity of the groups. The funding helped to make the event more visible and gave us more instruments, so more people could get involved.

I think probably the biggest impact was us thinking more about the outside – what else can we do out there and who else can be involved in it? Bringing in volunteers from outside the music and student community was a huge win! Taking singers from the University out to Gorton Library drop-in, Manchester Museum Family Day and The Lancasterian, a community special school in Didsbury, was a big step as well.

We were finally able to reach people who couldn’t come to us. Kids who can’t leave the school because of their medical conditions got to be part of the music. Withdrawn children danced. Non-verbal children shouted and signed “more”. Staff told us they felt lifted by the experience too! It was really emotional.

Maybe also the impact on me personally, because I really get a great deal out of it. I feel like what I am doing has value, I feel energised by being given the opportunity to help people feel happy and accepted – it makes me feel that I am worth more as well.

In relation to your project, is there anything planned for the future?

Yes, we're going to keep going! We have another Festive Sing-along Relaxed Performance on Friday, 19 December, 1.10pm at the Martin Harris Centre. We've got a BSL interpreter and singers ready to go, as well as returning audience groups who’ve already booked their buses! We’ve even got dates confirmed for more sing-along community visits too!

We’re sharing flyers across all Greater Manchester libraries to reach even more people. It is really helpful because people do pick up a flyer and they love looking for something to do at Christmas, especially as a family.

I've got some volunteers already signed up, but will do another push on that to see if we can get an even wider variety of people involved, from campus and beyond.

I’m going to continue to work on developing our accessibility and inclusivity at the MHC. And I want to share news of what has been achieved so far, because people should know and have the chance to be a part of it too. We need to spread the joy!

Sign up for this year’s relaxed festive sing-along.