THAILAND’S LEADING art institute Silpakorn University is aiming to encourage greater interest in the arts with the launch of the Music Plus Forum, a new hangout and store on the third floor of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. Here visitors can listen to music, examine art and, perhaps more importantly, talk about and share their ideas.
“I would like Music Plus Forum to be like a salon in France, a place where artists, musicians and poets chat, and share their attitudes, ideas, and experiences,” says Damrik Banawitayakit, dean of the university’s music faculty.
Music Plus Forum, which was officially launched last week with BACC’s director Luckana Kunavichayanont as the guest of honour, isn’t too big or too small and boasts the kind of cosy ambience that makes you want to linger. It’s well stocked with books and musical instruments and also offers small meeting rooms that are just right for seminars.
“Our university is a centre for knowledge and creativity, but very few members of the general people know about our artists and musicians and their work. This is an outlet where we hope to connect with city people. We organise concerts fairly regularly but we do not know whether the audience understands the artists or musicians,” says Damrik.
Seminars are planned for the new space as well as concerts, “at least twice a month,” says the dean. “We want the catch the attention of young people.”
“We had several foreigners wandering into the Forum before the official opening and trying out some of the musical instruments. They told us that they felt surprised to find this place. It is a challenge for the faculty to find a new way of coming close to the public. It will probably take a while before people feel comfortable about chatting with each other and in these early days, we are more likely to draw people who are fascinated by music and arts. We don’t want to make a profit but are hoping to become an information centre for music and arts as well as a place to hang out.”
The first week saw talks on the “Context of Contemporary Music of Thailand in Asean”, “The Spirit of Asean”, and “All about the Horns”, as well as concerts of light classical music, the university’s own compositions and a recital dubbed “Intermedia Composition”.
“We are aiming to draw young people with such topics as ‘Music Campaign: How to Write A Good Quality Song’. We’re not only covering classical music but also contemporary and pop. For adults, we have seminars on light classical music. We will be looking carefully at what kinds of music and topics people like and don’t like by evaluating consumer satisfaction after each seminar.
“Classical music needs to be presented in a new way, jazz needs to build a wider audience and perhaps blend with Asean music or world music. Commercial music should find other, larger audiences,” says Damrik.
Music Plus Forum also aims to be a kind of service centre for concerts countrywide. It is staffed by new graduates, who know a lot about music and are happy to provide information about music and concerts.
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– Follow the movement at Facebook.com/Music plus forum by Silpakorn University
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.