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The end of cultural democratisation
Cultural democratisation – the idea that cultural experiences should be made available to everyone – dates from the post-war period and the establishment of the Welfare State, almost 80 years ago. In its early days, it achieved a lot, through new civic theatres and galleries, arts access programmes, and the opening of higher education (including…
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Teaching or learning?
First published on Parliament of Dreams, 24 November 2014 In the third volume of his Essays, Michel de Montaigne writes a line that has since become famous: ‘Je n’enseigne point, je raconte’ It is almost impossible to put this into English. Donald Frame’s standard version – ‘I do not teach, I tell’ – makes telling sound didactic, which is contrary to what Montaigne…
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The value of small archives
Today, I’m republishing the first in a series of posts that originally appeared on websites that no longer exist. As I said a few days ago, my reasons for closing those sites remain sound, but some things vanished that merit another look. Sunday morning seems a suitable time for that, so I will make this…
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A fork in the road
At the end of last year, I closed two websites I’d maintained for many years and began to archive my work here. The reasons for doing so seemed good at the time, even necessary, but some things disappeared, while this site lost its clear focus on participatory art. To be honest, that was probably always…
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François Matarasso 