Team Building
Open Arts offer a range of creative interactive team building activities for businesses and organisations to help reduce employee stress, improve mental health and give team members the opportunity to build relationships in a fun and creative way. All our facilitators are professional artists and have received disability equality training.
Advantages of participating in a creative team building activity:
- Increased workplace engagement and interaction.
- Increased staff morale, fun and happiness.
- Increased workplace problem solving and productivity.
Gamelan Workshops
Open Arts owns the only full Javanese Gamelan in Northern Ireland. It is an extraordinary collection of melodic percussion instruments from Indonesia comprising gongs, metallophones and drums of various shapes and sizes.
We provide gamelan sessions for 5 – 12 people and is a great way for a team to work together in a creative and fun way. The instruments are uniquely accessible to play, so no musical experience is necessary and everyone will be playing music together as a group within just one session.
1-2 hour Gamelan session
- Be introduced to some of the cultural elements of Java
- Participants will have the opportunity to play a selection of instruments in the Gamelan orchestra in rotation
- Learn together how to play a piece of traditional gamelan music
- Musical team-building exercises and games are also included
3-4 hour Gamelan session (half day)
In addition to above participants will:
- Have the opportunity to create their own music as a team
- Learn more about Javanese culture, including traditional dance and wayang (shadow puppets)
- Get to play all the different instruments in the gamelan of which there are 4 types
- Short ‘Gong Bath’ at the end to promote relaxation
5-6 hour Gamelan session (full day)
In addition to above participants will:
- Learn to play one or two additional gamelan pieces
- Delve deeper into Javanese culture
- Learn more about the structures of gamelan music
- Have the opportunity to perform and record their music, either as an audio track or a video which can then be shared on the company’s website and social media platforms
- Extended ‘Gong Bath’ at the end to promote relaxation
Positive effects of playing the Gamelan:
- Musically challenging – but can also be simplified to any level.
- Relaxing / therapeutic.
- Improved concentration, co-ordination & memory skills.
- Thrill of performing as a group.
- Joy of learning about a different culture and musical tradition.
If you would like to know more about our bespoke Gamelan workshops please contact Bev, bev@openartsni.org.