François Matarasso

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  • Cultural democratisation and cultural democracy – a critical distinction

    Last week I had lunch with an old friend who holds a senior position in the arts. During our conversation, he asked me to explain the difference between cultural democratisation and cultural democracy. So I did. He understood the first, he said, but not the second. So I tried again. Still not. And again, in…

  • Beyond ‘teachy’

    ‘At that time, the problem that was bothering me most about the writing was that, although I’m speaking out of my heart, it comes out on paper like somebody’s talking from a pulpit, pontificating. I didn’t know how to beat this. Whenever you write your private, personal thoughts and put them in essay form, and…

  • The complexities of cultural democracy

    When I saw Owen Kelly in March, he generously gave me a copy of his new book, Cultural Democracy Now, and urged me to give him honest feedback. I started reading it on the journey from Helsinki, but hadn’t made much progress since, partly because of personal events, but also because it’s a challenging read. It…

  • Post-political arts policy

    The photo shows the Performance Ensemble in Leeds, in 2019 Whatever else it might—or more likely might not—achieve, the current argument about how to ‘save’ the arts shows how hollowed out the whole subject has become. There is little intellectual or political coherence in the ideas put forward by Sir Nicholas Hytner or Sir Nicholas…

  • Some selfless artists

    None of this work has been captured by power. It happens on the margins, largely unseen and ignored by state actors. Consequently, it can nourish a real alternative to the normative (and increasingly indistinguishable) ideologies of government and consumer capitalism. It enacts humanist values of connection, open-mindedness, tolerance and dialogue. It puts freedom before security.…

  • Why Nicholas Hytner is wrong about how to save the arts in England

    Curtain call of ‘La Gate Perduda’, a community opera I helped with at the Liceu Opera House, Barcelona, October 2022 One starting point for A Selfless Art is my recognition of how much participatory art and co-creation practice now imagines the world as being divided between us and them. Us, the people who know, who…