François Matarasso

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  • Cultural Collaboration and Civil Society

    Last year I spent some time looking at the work of Tandem, a partnership between the European Cultural Foundation and MitOst that connects cultural actors within and close to the European space. Tandem marked its fifth anniversary last autumn, and they asked me to reflect on what they’d done and what might change. The essay below is the result of that review,…

  • Community art festivals in Rotterdam and Porto

    There are two important community arts festivals on the horizon, in Rotterdam and Porto. I’ve mentioned them before but it’s worth doing it again because there’s news of both: Opportunities like this are valuable for anyone working in the field. By its nature, participatory arts work tends to be local and timely, which makes seeing other people’s…

  • Reasons for funding participatory art

    Looking at a handbook for participatory arts workers I wrote in 1994, I came across this list of reasons why the work deserves public funding. I could think of a few more today: if you have others, please share them in the comments below. Public funds should be spent on community-based arts activities because:

  • ‘It became necessary to learn because we made it so’

    My first contact with community arts, in 1981, was as a member of the public. With the fearlessness of youth, I’d produced a piece of theatre about human rights to raise funds for Amnesty International. When social media was still a matter for science fiction, we needed posters to advertise the show. Somebody told me about…

  • True to the art – Cardboard Citizens

      ‘We simply want to say we’re all human beings, and we really mean it, when we think: This could be me. This isn’t somebody different from me. This could be me.’ Adrian Jackson Cardboard Citizens is an outstanding theatre company, producing and touring new plays about homelessness. Cardboard Citizens is an outstanding social service…

  • ‘We’re trying to change the nature of art’

    Writing about community arts The first phase of community arts in Britain (roughly 1965-1990) has not had much attention from historians, art critics or other academics. In the one really substantial book on the subject, Kate Crehan suggests that may be because the art world refused to give attention to a practice that challenged its authority.…