François Matarasso

Blog

arestlessart.com/

Profile

arestlessart.com/author/regula

Homepage

regularmarvels.wordpress.com

  • What participatory art does not need

    After 50 years of creative invention and achievement, participatory art does not need discovering. It does not need the condescension of those comfortably settled at the table, or their leftovers. It does not need to be told its own history, or damned with faint praise. It does not need colonisation, exploitation or development. It does…

  • What participatory art needs: Professional development

    With adequate resources and trust participatory art would be in a position to address its weaknesses in professional development. Young artists can now study various models of applied theatre, participatory art and socially engaged practice, full time or as modules in other degrees, but opportunities to build on that knowledge after graduation are limited. That…

  • What participatory art needs: Trust

    Despite the demand for their work, participatory artists remain second-class citizens in the arts funding system. When a choreographer or curator approaches a funding body, they can assume a shared belief in the intrinsic value of dance or contemporary art. A participatory artist in the same position can make no such assumption. The professional expertise…

  • What participatory art needs: Resources

    Participatory art receives more public funding today than it did, but that is still a very small proportion of public budgets for culture. What’s more, the expansion of funding has produced an increase in volume of work rather than changing the conditions of its creation. Many participatory art organisations and artists are not much better…

  • What participatory art needs

    In Britain, participatory art is at a tipping point. It will continue to grow, but how that happens will be influenced by choices that lie with public institutions: the Arts Councils in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, art schools and universities, local councils and services.

  • ‘Here we found a space to think’

    When I argued – as I still do – that people benefit from participating in art, it is because of its potential for learning, emancipation and empowerment. Experience changes us. Powerful experiences, such as those that come from creating art with other people, can change us deeply. But that change is something we do for…