New Cornwall music education bosses granted £700k

The Cornwall Music Education Hub was started in 2012

A consortium has been awarded more than £700,000 to keep a music education facility running in Cornwall.

Community Interest Company (CIC) ASONE Perform said it and its partners had received Arts Council money to allow the work of the Cornwall Music Education Hub (CMEH) to continue.

Former operator Cornwall Council began in 2021 seeking someone else to run it because of budget pressures.

ASONE Perform said it was planning "exciting music learning options".

'Crucial funding'

The CMEH was set up in 2012, providing music-related curricular and extra-curricular activities for schools, children and young people.

Cornwall Council said last December it was unable to continue maintaining the CMEH because its finances were "under enormous pressure due to the combined effects of the pandemic and a rise in demand for frontline services such as adult social care".

It asked for a "suitable provider... so that access to music learning for children and young people in Cornwall is maintained".

ASONE Perform said it had been granted "crucial funding" of £702,200 by Arts Council England and it would take control of the service in April.

It said it would be renamed the ASONE Hub and would be managed by the original CMEH team, with more than 100 national and local music education providers and music industry professionals being involved.

It added that it was keen to provide "access to a range of exciting music learning options for all children in Cornwall and on the Isles of Scilly over the next year".