Youth Work Ireland's Irish Youth Music Awards project works with youth projects and young people, aged 12-19, across the country, providing personal development and hands-on music-based education as well as facilitating access to the creative and music industries.
Each year, the programme finishes with an all-ages national event which offers young creatives and musicians a chance to learn from award-winning musicians and industry professionals, as well as providing an opportunity for them to perform and create.
Like many things this year, this event had to be rescheduled. Upon realising it couldn't happen in a physical space, IYMAs Director Barry Lennon redesigned and redeveloped the event into a new innovative online format.
According to Barry: "This year has forced us to come up with creative ways to embrace the "new normal". It's been a tough year for everyone, but I think it's also been a year to learn and innovate.
"We've taken the opportunity to prototype some new ideas for the programme, bringing it to new platforms and new modes of engagement. So far, we’ve had over 5000 young people engage and participate in IYMAs online masterclasses, online concerts and webinars, all things we would have never done before."
Barry noted that a big strength of the programme is the hubs that they have developed across Ireland and the passionate youth workers that assist in delivering the programme.
"Our hubs are located in youth projects across the entire island and provide safe spaces for young people to learn and create."
This year the IYMAs undertook a review of the young people involved with the programme. It was identified that 86 per cent of participants live within CSO/ POBAL deprivation scoring areas - further highlighting the importance of initiatives like the IYMAs and the crucial outlet it is providing, especially during these challenging times.
"A unique element of the programme is our links to the creative and music industries in Ireland. These have been developed over the last few years to include an educational partnership with BIMM Institute Dublin, an industry partnership with IMRO and a media partnership with RTÉ 2FM to provide more access to the airwaves for young creatives and musicians.
"These industry links really set us apart from other music programmes and it’s something that the young people really value." said Barry.
IYMA provides a musical equipment support bursary with BIMM Institute Dublin to support young people's progression to third level education. So far, 13 IYMA participants have availed of this bursary.
"It's great to see young people continue their educational journey and hopefully we will see some of these emerge as future leaders in the creative industries." said Barry.
"A real reward for me has been seeing the progression of young people we have worked with, like singer-songwriter Curtis Walsh who now has over eight million streams of his debut singles."
Among other IYMA talent is Róise McHugh who was included in the long list for the Glastonbury festival emerging talent competition last year.
"It's been really exciting working with lots of different acts as part of producing our yearly IYMAs compilation album, with our last release reaching number five in the Irish charts." said Barry.
"Most of the artists featured on this album had no experience of recording in a studio, so we provided a real-life education of seeing and being part of a production team and going through the process of releasing an album."
According to Barry, it is vital that IYMA provide support for young creatives and musicians.
"Now more than ever we need to support the creative industries and recognise the huge role they play in societal well-being."
The IYMAs have announced an online all-ages national event on Saturday, October 17th. This event will offer young creatives and musicians from across the country access to some of Ireland's best industry professionals including: RTÉ 2FM's Dan Hegarty and Mercury nominated Fontaines D.C.
Nialler9 will host a workshop with Dermot Kennedy’s Micheál Quinn exploring his experience of touring the world including playing two sold out gigs in the 3Arena and RTE 2FM's Tara Stewart will chat with Pillow Queens who have just released their debut album In Waiting to critical praise after a series of top charting singles.
Tickets for Irish Youth Music Awards are available on iymas.ie - find out more about the IYMAs here.
