Practitioner experiences of intercultural music engagement (ICME) in the community arts sector

As our societies become increasingly diverse, empathy and intercultural understanding have become essential for sustaining socially cohesive communities. Community arts programs have become key sites for fostering connection and understanding between dominant and minority cultures, particularly through showcasing the works of minority artists. Yet, despite growing political support for organizations in this sector, recent research suggests that significant power imbalances exist between minority practitioners and the arts organizations who engage them. Using a collaborative dialogue approach, this article explores the experiences of community-based intercultural music practitioners. It also interrogates how their work might be better sustained with the help of an intercultural music engagement (ICME) framework. Results show intercultural music practitioners undertake significant amounts of unrecognized labour, while also experiencing significant culture-based discrimination and violence. Findings identify the relevance of an ICME framework in supporting these practitioners and considerations for further development and application. Most significantly, ensuring minority communities are properly resourced to participate in the arts sector emerged as best practice for fostering understanding and empathy through ICME and addressing power imbalances in community arts.