Sounding the Third Sector: A Symposium on Music Research and Nongovernmental/Nonprofit Organizations

In the present moment, amid the pressing concerns of a global refugee crisis, global aid cuts, and the effects of neoliberal governance on arts and cultural policy—three phenomena that have shifted increasing levels of arts and cultural activity into the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) sphere—it is important for scholars of music to adopt a more concerted focus on this area of artistic-social activity. There is a critical need for greater study and understanding of the role of nonprofits and NGOs in shaping musical activity worldwide. This symposium will enable scholars, arts nonprofit leaders, and artists to dialogue about the methodological and analytical strategies and considerations that are distinctive to working with such organizations, and about the systematic effects that such organizations are having on music making.