François Matarasso

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  • 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…

  • ‘From little things, big things grow’

    Between the Traction opera performances in the prison last week, and those that will take place in Lisbon at the end of this week, I was able to spend some time with friends from distant parts of the world who happened to be closer than usual. Yesterday, I had lunch with Àlvaro Restrepo and Marie-France Delieuvin, whose brilliant…

  • The meaning of risk in community art

    Three days ago, anticipating the first performance of the Leiria prison opera, I wrote that I didn’t expect to see anything better, more valuable or more important. It was a small, calculated risk, the kind I make all the time. It really wouldn’t matter if I was wrong, but I was confident in my judgement.…