Cross-Cultural Collaboration as Community Growth and Integration: Children’s Music Projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Scotland

Abstract

This paper constitutes a reflective account of inclusive approaches in two children’s music projects, both aiming to foster group creativity alongside cross-cultural awareness and understanding. The first of these projects involved sharing songs composed by children and young people from a special needs school in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a primary school choir in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The second project, in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, focused on group song-writing and performance involving three groups of children from ethnically separated schools, alongside a choir from a school for children with visual impairments. On reflection, we discuss cross-cultural musical collaboration as an effective means of bringing children together across social and cultural divides in order to share new experiences while building respect for differences.   We hope projects such as these may represent the first step towards the ultimate goal of encouraging and nurturing more inclusive friendships between children who might not otherwise have opportunities to interact with each other.