History
Acoustic Arts was established in 1990 as a community arts organisation to promote outdoor learning, creative play and improved access to music-making for people of all abilities.
Over the last 30 years Acoustic Arts has created award-winning musical installations for educational, arts and environmental organisations throughout the UK.
At the same time, Acoustic Arts developed a commercial range of permanent outdoor musical instruments suitable for schools, parks, playgrounds, sensory gardens and other recreational sites.
Acoustic Arts was founded by John Walls, a musician and former teacher with 20 years' experience in early years and special needs education.
As part of his work with deaf and blind children, John began to design musical instruments that celebrated the musical and tactile qualities of familiar, everyday products and natural materials.
Much of John's inspiration came from studying folk instruments from around the world, often constructed from objects that most people would consider pure scrap. His prize possession is a one-string guitar, bought in Timbuktu, made from camel skin, a sardine tin and a stick.
Commissions
Sounds of Scrap
Theatre and Green Fields, Glastonbury Festival, 1987-91
Muscal installations constructed from recycled musical instruments and bicycle parts. Instruments included salvaged pianos, drums and musical horns.
Sound and Sense Trail
Woodside Centre, South Gloucestershire, 1994
A multi-sensory installation for pre-school blind children. Received the annual BT Environment Week Special Award from the Civic Trust for its “imaginative and innovative approach”
Elmfield Sound Garden
Elmfield House, Bristol, 1997-98
A trail of interactive, oak-framed sound sculptures for young deaf children.
NomadVerkstan
Stockholm, 1997
Construction of a percussion station on the roof of a bus converted for use by a youth project.
Ghost Ship
Bath Arts Festival, 2000
Ghostly musical sculptures on a ‘haunted’ vessel..."A large ship glided up the river Avon making mysterious musical noises; I have never seen a ship get several rounds of applause in a concert before."
Miles Kington in The Independent
A Twist in the Tale
Malvern Spring Show, 2008
Acoustic Arts’ giant chimes feature in an award-winning children’s storytelling garden created by Lindsay Anglin of Green and Stone Garden Design.
Music Centre
London, Oxford, Bristol. Collaboration with Touchwood Enterprises, 2009
Freestanding musical installations with frames built using unprocessed timber from the Forest of Avon.
Walls of Sound
Bristol Playhouse Nursery, 2010
Wall-mounted musical designs created to make the best use of limited space.
Trolleyphones
Meadowbank Special School, Cardiff, 2010A set of tuned instruments mounted on lockable wheels so they can be shared between playgrounds.
Music Garden
Horniman Museum, London, 2012. Collaboration with Metal Media.
Outdoor musical sculptures inspired by the museum’s collection of instruments from around the world.
National Museum of Scotland exhibit
Edinburgh, 2013-2014
Radial Tongue Drum, Wall Xylophone and Paddle Pipes. Permanent interactive exhibits.
Sound Garden
Prior's Court, Berks. 2016
An outdoor music learning centre consisting entirely of bespoke instruments and sound makers designed specifically for young people with autism.
Winchester Science Centre exhibits
Winchester, 2020
Resonated xylophone and metallophone. Interactive exhibits.
Music Station
Devon Music Hub, 2022
A portable percussion playground, shared between schools and community events throughout the county.
Floraphone
Blenheim Palace, 2023. Collaboration with Metal Media and Cap.co.
A tuned pair of xylophones in the shape of giant flowers, where the petals are the xylophone keys.
Music Park
Flitwick Town Council, 2024
A permanent musical playground with bespoke percussion instrument designs inspired by an adjacent, recently planted woodland.
Community Music Projects
With funding awards from the Arts Council and the National Lottery, Acoustic Arts has coordinated hands-on musical projects for children of all abilities. These range from making instruments from recycled materials to designing and planting musical gardens. Previous partners include Youth Music, Surestart, BBC 2, Radio 3, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, Barnardos, Sense, RNIB, RNID, NatWest and Whitbread.
Blow Your Own Trumpet
with Bristol School of Samba, 2000
In a project designed and coordinated by Acoustic Arts, a group of 25 teenagers worked with professional craftsmen over ten weeks to build musical instruments from recycled materials. They then performed their own compositions at a BBC Music Live concert in front of 2000 people.
All Join In
with Children’s Playlink and South Gloucestershire Council, 2003-4
In this project, involving over 400 pre-school children, Acoustic Arts recruited local and international artists to showcase a wide variety of musical styles and instruments, and to provide specialist training for playgroup leaders.
5x5x5
with WOMAD and Youth Music, 2006
Inspired by the Reggio Emilia early years educational model in N. Italy, this research project brought together groups of young children, some with profound learning difficulties, to explore art and sound in a series of self-directed sessions.
Growing Music: Rhythms for Life
with WOMAD and RIO, 2008–9
Acoustic Arts played a central role in designing and delivering this pioneering project which explored the global links between music, culture, plants and climate. Working with a number of primary schools in Cornwall, the international team helped children to grow, and perform on, their own musical instruments.
'The mix of fun and creativity never fails to captivate the children'
Bath Area Play Project
