François Matarasso

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  • Life writing

    On a dark road, I seek out the company of books by people who’ve traced similar journeys. Each story is unique, particular to its teller, yet there’s common experience too: pain is inescapably human. What I read is largely the result of serendipity, though I’m mapping a territory on which I hope A Selfless Art will…

  • ‘Well, my heart’s in the Highlands…’

    Being freelance means never knowing what you might be doing, or where. It’s one of the things I like most about it. Responding to a commission, or a call for tenders, is a process of discovery, akin to my idea of co-creation. It starts with someone else’s need or interest: my task is then to…

  • Living in negative capability

    New year. Sun, dazzling on frosted grass. The view from my windows is scenery in a toy theatre, flat bare trees Indian ink on cut-out mountains, receding in paler shades to the bright horizon. Blue remembered hills.  I’ve never been quite sure what Keats meant by ‘negative capability’, but perhaps he wasn’t sure either. It’s…

  • Imagining a future (revised)

    TL:DR One of my oldest and wisest friends told me last night that yesterday’s post was confused and hard to follow. It’s a mistake I’ve made before, so I’ve revised it and added this summary. (I tried to do too many things in it.) And if that wasn’t complicated enough, I hinted at new concerns…

  • In defence of universalism

    ‘Civil war? What does that mean? Is there a foreign war? Is not every war between men war between brothers?’ Victor Hugo, Les Miserables For different reasons, my attention is currently elsewhere, so I will continue to add some past work here, consolidating texts that have been scattered across obscure publications and websites. Today’s was…

  • A website update

    Now that my other websites have been retired, I will gradually add relevant material here. This site remains focused on co-creation, community art and cultural democracy, but its range will broaden from the book with which it shares a title. One example of that is culture in development, where I’ve worked in Eastern Europe, Central…