François Matarasso

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  • Traction – an EU research project

    An article by Emanuela Barbiroglio published in Horizon, The EU Research and Innovation Magazine,10 August 2022 A prison opera and digital transformation boost diversity of artistic voices Four professional Portuguese singers performed the main roles in a new opera based on Homer’s “Odyssey” at a packed concert hall in Portugal’s capital Lisbon in mid-June. Also on…

  • Virtual Realities, Part One

    Early in 2020, Irish National Opera (INO) began work on an unusual community project—a new VR opera, co-created with people from three different parts of Ireland: teenagers living in rural areas, adults from Tallaght, on the edge of Dublin, and Irish-speakers and other residents of Inis Meáin, an island off the coast of Galway. Geographical and cultural…

  • There is always an alternative. Always.

    On Tuesday, I facilitated a talk for the Scottish Culture Collective by my friend Heba El Cheikh. She spoke about her work as a cultural producer and activist in Cairo and other cities of the Nile delta during the past decade, focusing on City Shadows, a project in Port Said, the city created in 1859 at the northern end of…

  • Can you teach community art?

    TL;DR? No. In the 1980s, when the first generation of community artists had been around for long enough to feel they understood the territory they’d discovered, and were beginning to cast their eye over other lands, with different attractions and rewards, there was a lot of talk about how to pass on to others what…

  • ‘Write this down’

    It was the end of a long day. We’d run out of time and the guards needed to get us moving. Goodbyes take time in Portugal, and especially in the prison. Handshakes and hugs for everyone, from everyone. A ritual of recognition.  One young inmate—I’ll call him João, but it’s not his name, or his…

  • Building Capabilities: Rethinking the social value of culture

    Today will see the third performance of O Tempo (Somos Nós) , “Time (It’s Us), this time at the Gulbenkian Concert Hall in Lisbon, with the fourth and final one tomorrow. Sixteen inmates from the Leiria Youth Prison will perform in Lisbon, along with some of their relatives; sixteen more will take part remotely, using the…