François Matarasso

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  • The power of art

    Last night, Streetwise Opera replayed the film of their 2016 production, The Passion, on YouTube, for a world in the grip of a pandemic. I first saw it broadcast on BBC television on Easter Sunday in 2016. It was a stunning, unforgettable experience, and I have often spoken about it since: it was one of the…

  • This is what we’re working to protect

    Everyone knows the theatres are closed, along with cinemas, concert halls, museums and galleries. Yesterday, the 2020 Edinburgh Festivals were abandoned, like the 2020 Olympic Games and, perhaps most damaging of all, the COP26 Climate conference in Glasgow. The consequences for artists, actors, musicians, technical staff and all the others who work, mostly freelance, in…

  • When we were in the streets

    With everything that is happening to us, I’ve rather neglected this site recently, writing elsewhere about community opera and how the cultural sector is coping with suspension of its work. But community art remains at the heart of my concerns and we all need some inspiration. Eva Garcia has made brave, imaginative community art in…

  • Do you have questions about community art?

    Many artists who work with people now find themselves with time on their hands as governments escalate measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Some, like me, are obliged to stay indoors; others have just found their projects suspended or cancelled. The practical and psychological challenges are substantial, as I’ve written elsewhere. But the enforced…

  • ICAF is cancelled

    The speed and depth of the events we are all now living through takes my breath away. Just a month ago, I encouraged readers of this blog to come to Rotterdam to the triennial International Community Arts Festival, truly a landmark in the field. I just learned that the event has been cancelled, one more…

  • A story that deserves telling

    Yesterday I got an email from a research student called Chloé Bradwell who wanted to contact artists who had worked with older people during the 1980s. At the time, I was at East Midlands Shape, a small organisation working in the arts mainly with disabled people. Her request reminded me how much the landscape of…