The Project

Improvising Across Boundaries is a four-year research project funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council. It is run by a team from University College Dublin (see Team) in partnership with the Improvised Music Company (IMC). It has been designed to place musician experience and engagement at its core, and to provide useful information, resources, data, and events during and beyond the project’s life.

The project aims to establish a community of musicians: to work together to document the experiences of women and gender minority improvisers active on the island of Ireland; to produce useful resources, data and reports for musicians, policymakers and other industry professionals; to provide a space for collaboration and community; to highlight the key issues for women and gender minority improvising musicians, and to provide ways forward towards equity and support.

The project aims to:

  • Explore and share the experiences of women and gender-minority improvising instrumentalists on the island of Ireland.

  • Encourage collaboration and a community mindset amongst female and gender-diverse improvisers in Ireland. 

  • Support the sharing of practice and knowledge – between musician participants, within the research team, with wider audiences to include musicians, industry professionals, policy makers, educators, researchers, students, and the general public.

  • Engage actively and produce resources to address the pervasive gender imbalance of the music industries in Ireland. 

  • Bring together promoters of improvised music and develop a new island of Ireland / UK network.

  • Think about how improvising musicians consider gender in their musical practice.

  • Address the lack of scholarly understanding relating to the experiences of women and gender-minority instrumentalists.

  • Capture negotiations of gender identity through the act of, and critical reflections upon, improvisation as cross-genre and a space for experimentation and disruption. 

  • Question what constitutes freedom in improvisation.

  • Document and address key challenges experienced by women and gender-minority musicians irrespective of musical genre or musical practice. 

  • Establish a model for collaborative artist/industry/academic research.

We hope to create:

  1. Original music created through the project activities and reflecting in some way upon gender, gender identity, and gendered experience (all copyright will be owned by the musicians)

  2. A 40-minute documentary to be screened in February and June 2027 at project events and then at independent film festivals in Spring / Summer / Autumn 2027.

  3. A book to include contributions from the participating musicians, developed and written through writing workshops as part of the project, published by June 2027.

  4. Four Open Access reports on musician experience, festivals, education, and a final project report that provide data, analysis, and recommendations for a mixed academic, industry, and general audience – hosted on the project website.

  5. Four academic articles reflecting on gendered experience of improvising musicians active on the island of Ireland, the place of gender identity in their music making, and the collaborative approach of the project, published Open Access in academic journals.

  6. A model for co-produced and collaborative model for partnership research in the cultural industries (to be available on the project website).

  7. Contributing to a continuing and developing improv summer school for girls and gender minority post-primary students aged 12-16 (in partnership with IMC).

  8. Project website – to host all reports, method model, musician profiles and press packs, monthly blogs, links to other useful resources, recorded presentations, Open Access publications, information on team and partners.

  9. A plan for the future research or collaboration.

This project will be run in accordance with UCD’s ethical requirements and overseen by the Research Ethics Panel. 
If you have further questions about your potential involvement as a musician in this project, please email the team at info@improvacrossboundaries.ie