François Matarasso

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arestlessart.com/

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  • What’s happening with ‘A Restless Art’?

    Summer’s almost over, soon it’s back to school Soon they drain the water out of the swimming pool Adopt a brand new attitude, a positive outlook Buy yourself some pencils and a loose leaf notebook Loudon Wainwright III This long, hot summer is slowly drawing to its close, and with it the completion of the…

  • ‘Just our imagination’

    Bridget Lambert has spent the summer painting a tribute to Dolores O’Riordan with children in rural Limerick.  The singer, who died in January this year, was born a few miles from Caherconlish, where Bridget worked with children from local schools. A Cranberries fan herself, she took pleasure in introducing some of the children to the music…

  • On volunteering: who gets paid (cont.)

    A few days ago, I wrote a post about who does, could or should get paid for their time in participatory projects. It got a lot of interest, and it’s one of the most-read posts I’ve written this year. In some online discussion about it, the question of volunteering came up, which surprised me because…

  • Why are there so few books about community art?

    There are very few books about community art in Britain, despite its 50 year history. The key texts are: 1978, Artists and People by Su Braden 1984, Community, Art and the State: Storming the Citadels by Owen Kelly 1995, Art with People, edited by Malcolm Dickson To them can be added two recent books: Kate Crehan’s Community Art, An…

  • Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

    In A Restless Art (the book, not the blog) I argue that participation has become normalised in cultural policy and the art world. I try to show how profound that change has been over the last 50 years, and to explain how it marks the closure of a rift in art that opened in the…

  • Who gets paid – and why?

    Like a lot of freelance artists, what I get paid ranges from a lot to nothing, according to the commissioner’s resources, what I’ve been asked to do, and my own wish to do it. So my choices about what work to take on hover between interest and need, but at least I get to choose.…