François Matarasso

Blog

arestlessart.com/

Profile

arestlessart.com/author/regula

Homepage

regularmarvels.wordpress.com

  • Everyone can cook

    The idea that everyone can be an artist has always underpinned my work. It seems straightforward to me, but some people evidently find it difficult to accept. Part of the problem is the belief that developed in the early 19th century, during the movement we now call Romanticism, that an artist is a special kind…

  • Cultural democracy is a fox

    A podcast about cultural democracy A long bus journey through rainy Pembrokeshire gave me time to listen to the latest episodes of Owen Kelly and Sophie Hope’s podcast about cultural democracy. Anyone interested in the theory, history and possible future of community art will enjoy these conversations. Owen Kelly played an important role in the…

  • An elegy for ‘The Public’

    I only saw The Public from a distance, from the other side of the Midlands, but I liked what I saw. It seemed a brave experiment in scaling up community art, in making the idea of cultural democracy real in West Bromwich. I talked with the people behind it when it was just an idea,…

  • Respecting other people’s reasons for (not) participating

    Making a book is enjoyable but demanding too, especially as the deadline for sending digital files to the printer approaches. Proofreading is my current priority, so lacking time to write something new, I’ll share some extracts from the book in advance of publication. This is from a discussion of the intentions people bring to making…

  • More questions than answers: stories, art and ownership

    On Tuesday, I spoke about participatory art at a conference in Valletta. The questions people raised afterwards were mostly the kind I can’t answer—doubts about power, vulnerable people, appropriation and the relationship between professional artists and non-professional artists. Participatory art presents lots of ethical, political or philosophical dilemmas to which you can only respond with…

  • Cultural democracy and the European Parliament

    Today, I got to speak at the European Parliament, at a conference organised by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats. I’d never been before, and I was glad to have a chance to contribute as a citizen of the European Union while the UK is a member. The various presentations were interesting, but what I…