The photo shows the Performance Ensemble in Leeds, in 2019 Whatever else it might—or more likely might not—achieve, the current … More
Category: Ideas
Why Nicholas Hytner is wrong about how to save the arts in England
Curtain call of ‘La Gate Perduda’, a community opera I helped with at the Liceu Opera House, Barcelona, October 2022 … More
Research on participatory opera and music theatre
SIMM (Social Impact of Music Making) is a platform linking academic researchers with practitioners committed to music as a path … More
Co-creating Opera: Presenting the learning from the Traction project
Regular visitors to this site (and its retiring companions) will know that I have spent much of the past three … More
There is another way
A guest post by Richard Willacy, General Director, Birmingham Opera Company I’m arriving at a foyer buzzing with excitement; youth, … More
A Culture of Possibility Podcast #25 – Jasmina Ibrahimovic
NOTE: This post is to introduce you to the 25th episode of François Matarasso’s and my monthly podcast, “A Culture … More
Watch the making of ‘La Gata Perduda’
Reading about ‘La Gata Perduda‘ in these posts must be a somewhat frustrating experience. After all, it has often been … More
Access ≠ Democracy
When I began in community art, the photocopier was new technology. In the printshop where I was an apprentice, we … More
Virtual Realities, Part One
Early in 2020, Irish National Opera (INO) began work on an unusual community project—a new VR opera, co-created with people from three … More
Can you teach community art?
TL;DR? No. In the 1980s, when the first generation of community artists had been around for long enough to feel … More