François Matarasso

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  • Restless Research: Confessions of a Confused Community Art Scholar

      If you’ve read some of the material published on this site, I hope you’ll understand why I describe participatory art as ‘restless’. The tensions and ambiguities of the practice are inescapable. After nearly 40 years in the field, I still have many uncertainties about its artistic, ethical and political meanings. In May 2018, my…

  • ‘It’s given us permission to play, to take part, to engage.’

    ‘A Fun Palace is not a fete. It’s not about coming along and having a lovely time. It’s not audience development. It’s saying to everybody—you can do this; you already do this. You are allowed to make art and science.’ Stella Duffy Click here to download this case study in English (PDF 12MB)   Having…

  • 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…