Stasha Wong (BMus Year 4, Recording Arts & Sciences) and Noah Diggs (BMus Year 3, Composition) recently participated in the European Master’s New Audiences and Innovative Practice (NAIP) 8th Introductory Program 2017, hosted by Iceland Academy of the Arts, held in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland from 25 August to 3 September 2017. The NAIP Introductory Program is a collaboration of institutions taking part in the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership NAIP: Training Artists Without Borders. During the course students participate in workshops led by teachers from the participating institutions and develop interdisciplinary group projects. This year’s course focused on cross-art collaboration for students to incorporate influences from the surrounding community and landscape to create stories, concepts, dialogue, film and performances which were presented at various locations in the town.

Noah felt that he learned a lot from his experience in the NAIP programme. “At first it was a struggle to align myself with the vision of others, especially when it was very far from what I wanted to explore creatively,” he says. “I brought this up with my mentor, who gave me this advice: enjoying the creative process depends entirely on myself. In the end, our project was quite successful, as we were chosen as the opening performance to the presentation day!”