François Matarasso

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  • Things get tough

    Well. Today was a challenging day. First of all, I had to dance, or at least move in roughly the same direction as everyone else, at roughly the same time. I’d managed to avoid Antonio’s workshops up to now, even though they are fantastic as the delight expressed by everyone who does them testifies. But…

  • Finding our voice

    The last post was about trusting the process. I didn’t expect things to happen so quickly, but a morning’s work was enough to clear the mists. Working with actor and director, Ramūnas Šimukauskas, the group literally found its voice. The opening scene happens in a market and strong performance ideas are starting to emerge from…

  • Community art is a high wire act

    This is often the trickiest stage of a workshop – somewhere towards the end of the first half.  The novelty has gone. People, places and situations you barely knew before start to seem familiar. The group is acquiring patterns. It’s less about discovery now, more making something worthwhile with what’s been discovered. You find yourself…

  • First steps in the cabbage field

    The five day community arts summer school in Kaunas got off to a prompt start at 9am this morning. Twenty five people had gathered in a summer cabin on the site (the result of an earlier project) and we spent the first hour introducing ourselves. We’re a diverse group, mostly local to the neighbourhood, but…

  • The Cabbage Field: First impressions

    The Cabbage Field is part of a former barracks in Šančiai, a suburb of Kaunas (Lithuania). The site was established by the Imperial Russian army in 1899, used by Soviet, German and Lithuanian troops during the 20th century and abandoned in 1991, after Lithuania became the first republic to declare independence from the USSR. Much  was…

  • What community arts needs

    Neither community arts practice nor its results are always good. Most art is, by definition, average—and that is good enough. Community art is generally competent, worthwhile in its time and place. Some, for one reason or another, is poor. And some is glorious, spectacular and life-changing: it takes your breath away.  In this respect, community…