Genuine worldwide movements for social change are rare in human history. Even more rare is the phenomenon of a world wide movement for social change through art. We are fortunate to be experiencing the evolution of such a movement now, in the global blossoming of El Sistema
Eric Booth
A World of Sistemas
Since the foundation of El Sistema in Venezuela in 1975, El Sistema and El Sistema inspired programmes have spread to many countries around the world, with the pace of that expansion rapidly increasing since the start of the twenty first century. There are now many hundreds of programmes populating every continent of the world except Antartica. The most comprehensive (but likely not exhaustive) list of current El Sistema programmes can be found in the Sistema Global Programme Directory
El Sistema: the open source approach
El Sistema is a decentralised global organisation. Instead of trying to control the many Sistema-based programmes across the globe, El Sistema Venezuela has generously made the ideas of El Sistema freely available for those who wish to embrace them. As a result, the El Sistema "brand" has developed into something akin to an open source idea, encompassing a wide variety of approaches and cultural models, which all reflect their different local conditions and help create a truly glocal (global and local) movement.
Want to find out more?
There are two particularly useful international resources for those wanting to discover the full extent and diversity of global El Sistema work:
- Sistema Global, a US non-profit which looks to connect, encourage and inspire El Sistema programmes, teachers and leaders all across the world.
- World Ensemble, a frequent newsletter (available in both English and Spanish), which regularly reports on the latest developments in the global El Sistema movement.