Post-political arts policy

The photo shows the Performance Ensemble in Leeds, in 2019 Whatever else it might—or more likely might not—achieve, the current … More

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