At The Sarah Nulty Power of Music Foundation, we believe in the transformative power of music to bring communities together, inspire creativity, and create lasting impact. That’s why we’re thrilled to support Maker{Futures}, an initiative from the University of Sheffield that champions maker education in schools, libraries, museums, and community spaces.
Our latest grant will help fund Maker{Music}, a fantastic new project designed to upskill community members—particularly library and community centre staff—so they can facilitate family workshops in making musical instruments from recycled materials. Through hands-on learning, participants will not only gain maker skills but also learn accessible teaching methods to write simple compositions and digitally record music using traditional and non-standard notation.
Maker{Futures} has a strong track record of fostering creative learning environments and empowering individuals with hands-on skills. Their Maker{Move} programme has already brought mobile makerspaces to schools, libraries, and community groups, while their Maker{School} initiative is helping shape a maker-focused curriculum in education. With 30 schools already engaged and a Maker{Library} award launching soon, the impact of their work continues to grow across South Yorkshire.
Music and making go hand in hand, and Maker{Music} will provide a new avenue for creativity. By equipping community members with the skills and resources to lead their own music-making sessions, the project will help families come together to explore sound, composition, and instrument creation—all while using sustainable materials.
With our support, Maker{Futures} will be able to provide resources and training for library and community centre staff to lead family workshops, develop printable and downloadable educational materials—including demonstration videos—to ensure long-term accessibility, supply starter kits with craft resources and essential materials to kick-start music-making sessions, and organise an in-person training event at the University of Sheffield, as well as an online training session to reach a wider audience.
By the end of this partnership, community members will be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to teach simple notation and composition techniques, use GarageBand and other digital tools for recording music, construct both tuned and untuned percussion instruments from recycled materials, and run independent, sustainable music-making workshops in their own communities. While the primary focus is on upskilling library and community staff, there’s also potential to extend this training to teachers, school workshops, festivals, and museums. We’re excited to explore how this initiative can evolve to reach even more people and further promote the power of music and making.
We are delighted to partner with Maker{Futures} on this project and can’t wait to see the impact it will have on Sheffield and South Yorkshire communities. Music has the power to unite, uplift, and inspire, and through Maker{Music}, we hope to ignite a new wave of creativity and collaboration.
If you're as passionate as we are about the power of music, stay tuned for updates on this exciting project! Together, we can make a difference—one beat, one note, and one maker at a time.