A Nun, an Alapaca, and the Villa Miseria: One Student's Postcard from Buenos Aires

Latin American Studie

What makes an audience? Investigating the roles and experiences of listeners at a chamber music festival

The views of audience members on their listening experiences are rarely heard in the research literature, although much speculation occurs on their roles and perspectives. This article reports on an investigation of audience experiences at a chamber music festival, and examines the ways in which social and musical enjoyment interact to generate commitment and a sense of involvement in the event. Audience members’ anxieties for the future of classical music listening are discussed, and recommendations made for research and practice that could recognise more effectively the central role of the listener in contemporary musical life

Loyalty and longevity in audience listening: investigating experiences of attendance at a chamber music festival

There is currently much concern amongst arts organisations and their marketing departments that audiences for classical music are in decline, yet little research has so far investigated the experiences of long-term listeners for insight on audience development and retention. This paper presents a case study of the Music in the Round chamber music festival, conducted over a three year period which included the retirement of the host string quartet, the appointment of a new resident ensemble, and associated changes in audience attitudes and priorities. The interaction between individual listening and collective membership of an audience is discussed, and the potential considered for understanding classical concert-goers as ‘fans’ or ‘consumers’

‘Testing, testing...’

This article reports on a small-scale study of feedback on music students’ written work, in which staff and students were asked to evaluate existing practice and suggest potential modifications. The value of feedback as a communicative learning tool is illustrated through students’ participation in a range of research tasks, including rating the usefulness of existing feedback comments and attempting to generate their own. The study shows that challenges in developing practice apply even where changes sought are far from radical, and conclusions are drawn which suggest ways forward for practice and research in giving feedback

Offsetting the cost of Community Support Agriculture (CSA) for low-income families: Perceptions and experiences of CSA farmers and members

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is an alternative food marketing model in which community members subscribe to receive regular shares of a farm's harvest. Although CSA has the potential to improve access to fresh produce, certain features of CSA membership may prohibit low-income families from participating. A ‘cost-offset’ CSA (CO-CSA) model provides low-income families with purchasing support with the goal of making CSA more affordable. As a first step toward understanding the potential of CO-CSA to improve access to healthy foods among low-income households, we interviewed 24 CSA farmers and 20 full-pay CSA members about their experiences and perceptions of the cost-offset model and specific mechanisms for offsetting the cost of CSA. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and coded using a thematic approach. Ensuring that healthy food was accessible to everyone, regardless of income level, was a major theme expressed by both farmers and members. In general, CSA farmers and CSA members favored member donations over other mechanisms for funding the CO-CSA. The potential time burden that could affect CSA farmers when administering a cost-offset was a commonly-mentioned barrier. Future research should investigate various CO-CSA operational models in order to determine which models are most economically viable and sustainable.ECU/Cambridge Open Access Publishing Agreemen

The Need for Evidence-Based Interventions to Reduce Food Insecurity Among College Students

Food insecurity is defined as insufficient resources to meet food needs. This is a global problem but is not confined to those countries identified as poor. One group of Americans who are particularly affected, and for whom the effects are particularly severe, is college students