François Matarasso

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  • 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.…

  • ‘‘I didn’t realise I had so much to say until we began this conversation.’

    Click here to download this case study in English (PDF 22MB) Clique aqui para descarregar este caso de estudo em português (PDF 15MB) What do you see? I don’t remember now who told me about a proposed dance project involving men and girls, but I do remember my reaction: that’s a really bad idea. A…

  • Be SpectACTive!

    Be SpectACTive! describes itself as ‘a European project based on audience development, involving some of the most innovative European organizations working on active spectatorship in contemporary performing arts.’ The project includes theatres, festivals foundations, universities and research institutes in the Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Spain and the UK. The project has just published…

  • What’s in a name?

    When I began thinking about this project, several years ago, I was determined to avoid the marshlands of jargon. Participatory art practices now go under a host of labels, each more refined than the next, but often incomprehensible to people outside the arts. So I decided to use only two terms – participatory art and…

  • The complexities of socially-engaged art practice

    ‘What are our motives? How do we make sure this isn’t just about us as artists and what we want? When am I being a neighbour and when am I being an artist?’ Anna Francis Selling the post-industrial city Stoke-on-Trent is a federation of six English towns that grew up in the 19th century on…