Carol Bowden

We want your submissions for the upcoming issue of Sounding Board! You can share your thinking and practice in words, pictures, audio or video. If you have any questions, please email our Communications Manager claire.francis@soundsense.org & find more info here: www.soundsense.org/DB/resources...

Alison McGowan is a puppeteer and a child psychotherapist; Nic Golightly is a graphic artist who dabbles in design and illustration.

Both are associate artists with Blue Cabin and have been paired together as part of our ‘buddying’ system.

Join us next week for our first Sound Sense Gathering of 2026 hosted by board member Carol Bowden. We'll be idea-sharing around what we can do as community music practitioners to support mental health and wellbeing, for ourselves and for others. All welcome! fb.me/e/5xs1GLMmZ

I don't know who needs to hear this, but cops are not allowed to shoot people just because you didn't do what they said.

That is called murder when they do that.

Some cops are working hard to convince people otherwise.

3 challenges we’ve faced in our sustainability journey - Blue Cabin Two of our sustainability champions, Amy Armstrong and Jane Gray, share three challenges we’ve faced in our sustainability journey so far.

How can a charity like Blue Cabin gather data on energy usage and sustainability when we all work from home?

Find out how we overcame this and two other challenges we’ve faced in our sustainability journey: wearebluecabin.com/latest/3-cha...

It was an honour to represent @bluecabin.bsky.social for this prestigious award. The #CYPNowAwards showcase innovative and outstanding practice in the children's services sector. We were rubbing shoulders with amazing people and organisations.

Woohoo!! 🎉🎉🎉

What it means to be a Care-Experienced Consultant - Blue Cabin Lucinda Fernandes Marvilha shares her perspective on her time as part of Blue Cabin's team of Care-Experienced Consultants.

Blue Cabin's Care-Experienced Consultants challenge, shape and strengthen our work, and help make sure that care-experienced voices are heard.

Here’s Lucinda Fernandes Marvilha with an insight into her first six months in the role.

wearebluecabin.com/latest/what-...

#NCLM @becomecharity.org.uk

Piercing the Sky virtual exhibition - Blue Cabin Creative Aid is a co-creation project with care-experienced young men in Deerbolt Prison, supporting the young men to be recognised as artists.

Piercing The Sky is a celebration of artwork and creative writing by care-experienced young artists in HMP Deerbolt and we’re proud to be able to share artworks from it.

You can explore the online exhibition here: wearebluecabin.com/resource/pie... #NCLM @becomecharity.org.uk

It's been great working with Blue Cabin to build their bank of free resources. You can find them here!

Sounding Board SOUNDING BOARD

Issue three of Sounding Board, the Journal of Community Music, is out now, and it includes a look at Blue Cabin's use of supervision with creative practitioners.

Take a look: sway.cloud.microsoft/GfcP759XDVV5...

@bowders.bsky.social

Get booked! We'd love to see you 😻

This is the Place - A Practical Guide to Early Years Music-Making Join Blue Cabin for the day to explore how and why music-making supports attachment and development for babies and children

You can book for this year's training day here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/this-is-th...

@bowders.bsky.social @youthmusic.bsky.social

Pages of my life: Art, care and conversation - Blue Cabin A free, online event to explore artworks produced by young men in Deerbolt Prison.

Young men in HMP Deerbolt have been working with artists to create their own exhibition and artists' book. Find out more about their work and share your responses, which will be fed back to the artists.

Find out more and book a place for this free, online event: wearebluecabin.com/latest/pages...

There's still time to book your space for this training opportunity 🎶

Join me and @katiedoherty.bsky.social for A Practical Guide to Early Years Music-Making 🎶

Monday 22nd September at Theater Hullabaloo in Darlington 🎶

September issue of our monthly Bulletin Board newsletter is out now!
- Join the Sound Sense Board
- Musicians with autism research steering group
- Contribute to Sounding Board journal
- Community music training, jobs & resources
Members can log in to read it here: www.soundsense.org/news-and-views

Did you miss our Community Music Now event back in March? Catch up on moments, learnings and perspectives from the two-day event in our latest Sounding Board journal - members can log in and read it here: www.soundsense.org/resources-an...

Join me and @katiedoherty.bsky.social for some playful music-making, learning, and conversation 🎶

🎉 We're finalists!!! 🎉

Love to This Is The Place team. The talented Katie Doherty, Lucy Ridley, and everyone at the pioneering Blue Cabin

Also the foster carers and young children of Darlington, and Redcar and Cleveland who come every week to sing and make music with us. This is for them 🎶❤️ 🎶

In North East England, personalised songs are being created for care-experienced babies and children. Musician Carol Bowden gives an insight into the process of creating these very special compositions.

creativelifestorywork.com/latest/sing-...

@bowders.bsky.social

Putting your heart in a song - Blue Cabin Here in North East England, personalised songs are being created for care-experienced babies and children. Musician Carol Bowden gives an insight into the process of creating these very special compos...

We’re working with Groundswell Arts to roll out their brilliant Sing Our Story project with care-experienced families here in the North East 🎵 Here’s an update on the first songs, from musician Carol Bowden.

wearebluecabin.com/latest/putti...
@youthmusic.bsky.social @bowders.bsky.social

It was a joyful, humbling, gorgeous experience to work with the foster carers to write a song about the children. Here's my thoughts if you fancy a short read ❤️

All 7 episodes of The Community Musician in Conversation are now LIVE on The Community Musician Podcast.

Big thank you to everyone who took part ❤️

You can listen on my website (link in bio), Spotify, Podbean, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Podchaser and Boomplay.

The Community Musician in Conversation is going LIVE!!!

I have released two conversations, one from @beckidriscoll, a fiddle player from North Devon, and the other from David Roberts, co-director for @soundwaveca28 in West Cumbria.

You can listen by following the link in my bio!

❤️❤️🎶🎶

Have a read about what I get up to. It's the most rewarding, inspiring, loving group of adults and children to work with. I look forward to singing, playing, chatting and laughing with them every week ❤️🎶❤️

The people and passion in evaluation - Blue Cabin When Blue Cabin partnered with tialt // there is an alternative to develop a new way of measuring our impact, we wanted to make sure that people across the entire organisation were involved – includin...

Evaluation shouldn't be "done on" but "done with". Read my blog for @wearebluecabin on working together to design evaluation for varying projects.

wearebluecabin.com/latest/the-p...

This is going to be a cracking event for practitioners and researchers working in community music. Get yourself booked on!

Community Music Now

Date: Mar 1 • 9:30 am

Location: Portland Way, Leeds, LS1

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/community-...