Actividad: Invited talk
A visionary music educator passionate about the transformational impact music can have in promoting individual and community well-being, she came into HE in 2006 with a move to Uist, the Outer Hebridean islands off Scotland’s West Coast, bringing a wide range of experience and networks having performed and delivered workshops in traditional Scottish music world-wide and curated and directed events for a range of communities, media groups and festivals. From the Outer Hebrides campus (one of 12 colleges which make up the University of the Highlands and Islands) Anna-Wendy designed and delivered a range of dynamic courses and initiatives including in 2012 the pioneering and internationally accessible BA Applied Music, producing many award-winning musicians. Her work has led to major investment in infrastructure with the building of a new Gaelic arts and Education Centre in South Uist. Her fostering of community and professional industry partnerships have provided transformational opportunities for student and graduates including numerous international festival performances and tours; Celtic Colours in Canada, Porcia Festival in Spain, National Piping Centre, BBC Scotland; Educational placements with Soundstorm Music Education in Dorset, and devising of Continuing Professional Development awards with new curriculum in music for film and TV. Anna-Wendy’s innovative approaches to building online collaborative learning environments and communities of practice include the development of the virtual residency in 2014 which has facilitated interdisciplinary and cultural exchange within the curriculum between with universities across the world whilst providing in-built COVID resilience. The 2019 and 2020 virtual residencies with universities in Senegal formed the basis for Knowledge Exchange project African Digital Academy supported through the Global Challenge Research Fund. Her approaches have benchmarked collaborative working across the university college partnership as well as providing leading exemplars which have influenced HE providers of practical music and arts curriculum across the world; recognised with the Collaborative Award in Teaching Excellence in 2021. Anna-Wendy is Senior Fellow HEA (Advance HE) and works closely with the University’s Learning and Teaching Academy to support strategic developments.