François Matarasso

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  • A Masterclass in Participatory Art

    January 2015 ‘I was thinking about you guys yesterday. I’ve been here three times before and I think I understand a little bit about how you feel about some things. It’s none of my business how you feel about some other things – and I don’t give a damn about how you feel about some…

  • The fanatic within

    It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one’s intelligence. George Orwell, Letter to Sir Richard Rees, 3 March 1949 February 2019 At a time when the lamps are once again going out, not only in Europe but across the world, I’ve…

  • The lawyer, the war criminal and the limits of empathy

    Here is another post drawn from the now-defunct websites, ‘Parliament of Dreams’ and ‘Regular Marvels’. When I closed the sites, I hadn’t anticipated that some of those articles would be referenced in printed books, so I hope that reposting them may help readers to locate them, despite different links. I’d forgotten about this piece until…

  • How can I work with those who (believe) they oppose me?

    One of the threads that began A Selfless Art was an insistent question: What is the value of my work if it does not welcome people who reject its values?   It is a complex challenge that opens other lines of thought, some of which are (currently) blocked, while others seem to be more fruitful. Either…

  • Still waiting…

    “I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again.” Georgia O’Keeffe, writing to Russel Vernon Hunter, from Art and Letters, 1990 Actually since last summer…

  • The end of cultural democratisation

    Cultural democratisation – the idea that cultural experiences should be made available to everyone – dates from the post-war period and the establishment of the Welfare State, almost 80 years ago. In its early days, it achieved a lot, through new civic theatres and galleries, arts access programmes, and the opening of higher education (including…