Co-creation as if people mattered
A Restless Art describes the history, theory and practice of community art. Published in 2019, the book is free to download, along with case studies and other resources.
A Selfless Art is a companion to that book, a rebalancing, more personal and reflective; it is in its early stages.
Elsewhere on this site you can find the books in the Regular Marvels series, reports, essays, and other writing. There are also documents on the early history of the community arts movement.
My other work includes a European project on opera co-creation, publications on culture and international development and community heritage. My podcast with Arlene Goldbard is here.
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When I saw Owen Kelly in March, he generously gave me a copy of his new book, Cultural Democracy Now, and urged me to give him honest feedback. I started reading…
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The photo shows the Performance Ensemble in Leeds, in 2019 Whatever else it might—or more likely might not—achieve, the current argument about how to ‘save’ the arts shows how hollowed…
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None of this work has been captured by power. It happens on the margins, largely unseen and ignored by state actors. Consequently, it can nourish a real alternative to the…
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Curtain call of ‘La Gate Perduda’, a community opera I helped with at the Liceu Opera House, Barcelona, October 2022 One starting point for A Selfless Art is my recognition…
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Yesterday, I received a copy of Geraint Franklin’s Murals and the Community Arts in England 1968–86: A Thematic Study. It’s a fine piece of work that deserves to be expanded into…
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A Restless Art was written from a place of relative confidence, although that confidence ebbed during the four years it took me to write. I set out complacently thinking I had…
François Matarasso 