Arts Council England funding was awarded to JPN in February 2020 to support a number of new initiatives as well as the continuation and development of work delivered in 2019. This comes after a period of consultation with the membership and wider jazz sector about its most pressing needs. More information on this can be found below, along with links for further exploration!

Read also about our earlier 2016-19 GOING DUTCH project created by JPN and run in partnership with Dutch Performing Arts. This enabled 42 JPN members to visit the Netherlands to visit festivals and listen to Dutch artists. Members then booked Dutch artists to play in UK and a further stage of the project created UK/Dutch artist collaborations. This resulted in a total of 109 gigs with artists playing in 43 different towns and cities in programmes presented by 58 different promoters.

At JPN, we are continuing our work with the amazing charity Attitude is Everything in order to push our sector toward increasing accessibility for jazz and improvised music events to all those in society. In 2020, we selected venues and festivals to take part in a case study which will be published later in 2021, showing how jazz venues and festivals of different shapes and sizes can work towards gaining the gold standard for accessibility! There are also plenty of opportunities to attend training sessions, focussed on Disability Equality and Customer Care, how to run a relaxed performance and accessible communication coming soon!

In partnership with Julia Payne and the hub UK, one of our priorities for this year is to facilitate high quality training for everyone in the jazz sector across the UK and Ireland. Already in 2020, we ran an informative open space event, which brought together a huge part of the UK and Irish jazz community to discuss the pressing issues of our time. We have also facilitated a number of action learning sets and business development sessions for our members. Moving into 2021, we have an ambitious four week data training series featuring experts from Bandcamp, Arts Council England, Skiddle and much, much more to follow…

For the past 3 years, JPN has been bringing together Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English delegates to feature at the international tradeshow and conference at Jazzahead! in Bremen, Germany. This year, although the annual showcase and conference is being held online, we will be representing the UK and Ireland as delegates at this year’s event, and we welcome all those interested to attend if you’re able. Moving forward into 2022, we will be continuing our involvement and making sure British and Irish musicians and industry professionals have a platform to network and showcase their achievements.

JPN hosts an annual conference which is the highlight of the jazz music industry calendar, bringing together delegates from across the British Isles and Ireland to network, learn and move forward together in creating a better environment for this music to thrive. Plans for this year’s conference are still being discussed and we will have more info on this soon.

This programme offers JPN members the chance to spend up to 4/5 days learning from each other, sharing experiences, and getting an insight into a different working culture in the thriving UK and Irish jazz sector. We aim to create opportunities for collaborations and to develop new projects between JPN members, with the view of making our network even stronger and more connected. More info on this coming later in 2021….

Our Creative Lab will bring together around 30 promoters, producers and artists from the jazz sector with creative technologists who share their passion for the music and for growing the jazz scene. Over 3 days, participants will collaborate using a prototyping process that borrows from hack culture, and involves guest speakers, ideation, team-based prototyping and show and tells. Their aim, to exploring the next frontiers of live performance, and how digital technology can most creatively play its part in that.

More info coming soon…

As we continue to grow the membership and work on how best we can serve all those within the network, we are constantly looking at new ways to adapt and fulfil our aims and develop as an organisation. Over the next year, we are working hard to make sure the membership onboarding process is as easy as possible, along with a new CRM and membership platform. We are also developing a new members resource hub where you will be able to access valuable training sessions, reports and tip sheets to help you and your businesses thrive in these challenging times. Along with continuing to develop partnerships throughout the music industry and beyond, all this work is focussed on making ourselves a more effective voice for the jazz sector in 2021 and for the future.

If you want get involved with our current programme of work, click on the link below and join the Jazz Promotion Network today!