François Matarasso

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  • 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…

  • ‘I hope it was a slight jolt for the public.’

    We’re here Choked by this #Somme100 commemoration. At a time when being British makes little sense, just beautiful. #wearehere Tweet from Charlotte Gittens, 2.48pm 1 July 2016 On Friday, 1 July 2016, early morning travellers at Glasgow Central Station came across an odd sight. A group of soldiers stood silent on the concourse, between the…

  • What cultural democracy meant in 1976

    In 1976, the Council of Europe organised a conference of European ministers with responsibility for cultural affairs in Oslo ‘to compare problems of cultural policy in relation to their shared acceptance of democratic values’. As far as I know, it was at this conference that the concept of cultural democracy became current in European political…

  • ‘We want to be remembered.’

    ‘Sometimes you’ve got to take risks for the unknown. You don’t know what you are going into but you’ve got to take that risk.’ Gwen Sewell, Entelechy Elders Company Performing together An outsize bed stands on a Bristol shopping street. In it lies an elderly woman in night clothes, propped against her pillows. People walk…