This page lists books and other publications about community and participatory art. It includes most of the bibliography from A Restless Art, (but not books that were relevant only in that context). and other texts that either were of tangential relevance to that book, or that I’ve subsequently found, including new publications. It’s loosely organised into fields, to help you find what you might be interested in. Links are provided to downloadable publications, but these sometimes go out of date. There is a lot of informal and online publication about participatory art, partly because mainstream publishers have produced little on the subject, so this list cannot be complete. I have chosen to include only books that it should be easy to find in a library or bookshop (perhaps second-hand). Inclusion of a title here should not be taken as endorsement. As in any field books about participatory art range in quality and value, but everything that’s included has at least something to offer readers. That said, this page should be seen as a work in progress, updated as and when possible.
Democratisation of culture
Aboudrar, B. & Mairesse, F., 2016, La Médiation Culturelle, Paris
Arnaud, L., Guillon, V. & Martin, C., 2015, Élargir la participation à la vie culturelle: Expériences françaises et étrangères, Grenoble
Bonet, L. & Négrier, E., eds., 2018, Breaking the Fourth Wall: Proactive Audiences in the Performing Arts, Elverum
Bunting, C., Chan, T., Goldthorpe, J., Keaney, E., & Oskala, A., 2008, From Indifference to Enthusiasm: Patterns of Arts Attendance in England, London
Borowiecki, K.-J., Forbes, N. & Fresa, A., eds. 2016, Cultural Heritage in a Changing World. New York
History of community art
ACGB, 1974, Community Arts, The Report of the Community Arts Working Party, June 1974, The Arts Council of Great Britain, London
Braden, S., 1978, Artists and People, London.
UK Arts policy and history
Anderson, D., ed. 2002, Pride of Place: How the Lottery Contributed £1 Billion to the Arts in England, London
Appleyard, B., 1984, The Crisis in the Arts, London
Philosophy and theory
Arnold, M., 1993, Culture and Anarchy and other writings, ed. S. Collini Cambridge
Bacqué, M-H, & Biewener, C. 2015, L’empowerment, une pratique émancipatrice ?Paris
Belfiore, E., & Bennett, O., 2008, The Social Impact of the Arts, An Intellectual History, London
Berger, J. 1972, Ways of Seeing, London
Bishop, C., 2012, Artificial Hells, Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, London
Bourdieu, P., 1984, Distinction, Cambridge
Studies of projects and programmes
Baker, G., 2014, El Sistema, Orchestrating Venezuela’s Youth, Oxford
Bartlett, B.-L. & Higgins, L., eds., 2018, The Oxford Handbook of Community Music, Oxford
Practice
Boal, A., 2000, Theater of the Oppressed, (trans. McBride, C. & M-O, & Fryer, E.) London
Carey, J., 2005. What Good are the Arts?London
Carpenter, H. 1996, The Envy of the World, Fifty Years of the Third Programme and Radio Three, London
Castells, M., 2015, Networks of Outrage and Hope, Social Movements in the Internet Age, London
Clark, T., 1997, Art and Propaganda in the Twentieth Century, The Political Image in the Age of Mass Culture, London
Cleveland, B., 2008, Art and Upheaval, Artists on World’s Frontline, Oakland
Clift, S. & Camic, P., 2015, Oxford Textbook of Creative Arts, Health, and Wellbeing: International perspectives on practice, policy and research, Oxford
Cohen-Cruz, J., 2005 Local Acts: Community-Based Performance in the United States, New Brunswick
Cooke, B. and Kothari, U., eds. 2001. Participation: The New Tyranny? London: Zed Books.
Craig, G., Mayo, M., Popple, K., Shaw, M., and Taylor, M, eds., 2011 The Community Development Reader: History, Themes and Issues, London
Craig, S. 1980, Dreams and Deconstructions, Alternative theatre in Britain, Ambergate
Crehan, K, 2011, Community Art, An Anthropological Perspective, London.
Crossick, G., & Kaszynska, P., 2016 Understanding the value of arts & culture The AHRC Cultural Value Project, Swindon
De Bruyne, P., Gielen, P., eds. 2011, Community Art, The Politics of Trespassing, Amsterdam
Deller, J., with Norris, R., n. d. (2017), ‘We’re here because we’re here’, London
Deslyper, R., Eloy, E., Guillon, V., & Martin. C., 2016, Pratiquer la musique dans Démos: un projet éducatif global?,Grenoble
Dickson, M., ed. 1995, Art with People, Sunderland
Dubois, V., 1999, La Politique Culturelle, Paris
Dugast, J., 2011, La vie culturelle en Europe au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, Rennes
Edwards, S., 1999, Art and its Histories: A Reader, London
Finkelpearl, T., 2014, ‘Participatory Art’ in Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Kelly, M., ed., Oxford.
Finnegan, R., 1989, The Hidden Musicians, Music-Making in an English Town, Cambridge.
Flesher Fominaya, C., 2014, ‘Debunking Spontaneity: Spain’s 15-M/Indignados as Autonomous Movement’, Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest, Vol 14, no.2
Fleury, L., 2016, Sociologie de la culture et des pratiques culturelles, Paris
Forster, E., 1951, Two Cheers for Democracy, London
Fox, J., 2002, Eyes on Stalks, London.
Freeden, M., 2003, Ideology: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford
Freire, P., 1972, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, translated by Myra Bergman Ramos, New York
Freire, P., 1997, Pedagogy of the Heart, translated by Donaldo Macedo and Alexandre Oliveira, London
Friedländer, S. 1997, The Years of Persecution, Nazi Germany and the Jews 1933 – 1939, London
Gardner, H., 2011, Frames of Mind, The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, New York
Goldbard, A., 2006, New Creative Community, The Art of Cultural Development, Oakland
Graves, J., 2005, Cultural Democracy, The Arts, Community and the Public Purpose, Chicago
Gray, J., 2003, Al-Qaeda and What it Means to Be Modern, London
Grosser, A., 2011, La joie et la mort, Bilan d’une vie, Paris
Hagberg, G., 2011, ed., Art and Ethical Criticism Chichester
Harari, Y. 2018, 21 Lessons for the 21st CenturyLondon
Harries, S., 2013, Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life, London
Heaney, S., 1997, The Redress of Poetry,London
Helguera, P., 2011, Education for Socially Engaged Art, A Materials and Techniques Handbook, New York
Helmers,. M. 2003, Intertexts: Reading Pedagogy in College Writing Classrooms, Mahwah
Henri, A., 1974, Total Art, Environments, Happenings, and Performance, New York
Hewison, R., 1987, The Heritage Industry, London
Hewison, R., 1995, Culture and Consensus, England, Art and Politics since 1940, London
Hewison, R., 2014, Cultural Capital: The Rise and Fall of Creative Britain, London
Hewison, R. & Holden J., 2006, Experience and Experiment: The UK branch of the Calouste Gulbenkian foundation, 1956-2006, London
Hickey, S. and Mohan, G., eds. 2004, Participation, from tyranny to transformation?London: Zed Books
Higgins, L., 2012, Community Music, In Theory and In Practice, Oxford
Hobsbawm, E., 1999, Behind the Times, The Decline and Fall of the Twentieth Century Avant-Gardes, London
Jacob, M., & Zeller, K., eds. 2015, A Lived Practice, Chicago
James, C., 2007, Cultural Amnesia, Notes in the Margin of My Time, London
Jeffers, A., & Moriarty, G., eds. 2017, Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art: The British Community Arts Movement, London
Jellicoe, A., 1987, Community Plays: How to Put Them On, London
Judt, T., 1998, The Burden of Responsibility, Blum, Camus, Aron and the French Twentieth Century, Chicago
Judt, J., 2005, Postwar, A History of Europe Since 1945, London
Kelly, O., 1984, Community, Art and the State: Storming the Citadels, London.
Kelly, O., Lock, J., & Merkel, K., 1986, Another Standard 86, Culture and Democracy: The Manifesto, London
Kenna, C., & Medcalf. R., eds. 1986, Printing is Easy…?, Community Printshops, 1970-86, London
Kershaw, B., 1992, The Politics of Performance: Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention, London
Kershaw, B. & Coult, T, 1990, Engineers of the Imagination, London.
Kołakowski, L. 1999 Freedom, Fame, Lying and Betrayal: Essays on Everyday Life, London
Kwesi Johnson, L., 2006, Selected Poems, London
Kynaston, D., 2009, Family Britain, 1951-1957, London
Le Guin, U., 1989, Dancing at the Edge of the World, Thoughts n Words, Women, Places, New York
Maclear, K., 2017, Birds Art Life Death, A Field Guide to the Small & Insignificant, London
MacNeice, L., 1966, The Collected Poems of Louis MacNeice, ed. E. R. Dodds, London
Manguel, A., 1997, A History of Reading, London
Manguel, A., 2010, A Reader on Reading, New Haven
Marquand, D., 2015, Mammon’s Kingdom, An Essay on Britain, Now, London
Marmot, M., 2010, Fair Society, Equal Lives, Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post-2010, London
Matarasso, 1996b, Northern Lights, The Social Impact of the Fèisean (Gaelic Festivals),Stroud
Matarasso, F. & Sarker, B., 1994, Making Space, South Asian Dance and Disability, Leicester
Matarasso, F. 1997, Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts, Stroud
Matarasso, F. 2012a, Where We Dream, West Bromwich Operatic Society and the Fine Art of Musical Theatre, West Bromwich
Matarasso, F. 2012b, Winter Fires, Art and Agency in Old Age, London
Matarasso, F., 1994, Regular Marvels, A handbook for animateurs, practitioners and development workers in dance, mime, music and literature, Leicester
Matarasso, F., 1996a, Defining Values, Evaluating Arts Programmes, Stroud
Matarasso, F., 2005, Living Heritage, Community Development through Culture Resources, Brussels
Matarasso, F., 2013a, ‘All in this together’: The depoliticization of community art in Britain, 1970-2011’ in van Erven, E. ed., Community, Art, Power, Rotterdam
Matarasso, F., 2013b, ‘Creative Progression: Reflections on quality in participatory arts’, UNESCO Observatory Multi-Disciplinary Journal in the Arts, Vol. 3 no. 3 Melbourne
McGrath, J. 1981, A Good Night Out, Popular Theatre: Audience, Class and Form, London
Meiselas, S., with women in refuge, 2017, A Room of Their Own, West Bromwich
Moriarty, G., 1997, Taliruni’s Travellers, An arts worker’s view of evaluation, Stroud
Morris, W., 1993 News from Nowhere and Other Writingsed. Clive Wilmer, London
Moser, P., & MacKay, G., eds. 2005, Community Music, A Handbook, Lyme Regis
Neal, L., 2015, Playing for Time, Making art as if the world mattered, London
New Economics Foundation, n.d. (1997), Participation Works! 21 techniques of community participation for the 21st century, London
O’Neill, O., 2002, A Question of Trust: The BBC Reith Lectures 2002, Cambridge
Peaker, A. & Pratt, B., 1996, Arts in Prisons: A Good Doss or Purposeful Activity?,Loughborough
Peaker, A. & Vincent, J., 1990, Arts in Prison: Towards a Sense of Achievement, London
Perry, G, 2014, Playing to the Gallery, London
Rankin, P., 2014, Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities, London
Read, H., 1955, The Grass Roots of Art, London
Rose, J., 2010, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, New Haven
Russell, W., 2000, Educating Rita, Harlow
Sartre, J.-P., 1973, Un Théâtre de situations, Contat, M. & Rybalka, M., eds. Paris
Schlink, B. 1997, The Reader, London
See Red, 2016, See Red Women’s Workshop, Feminist Posters 1974-1990, London
Selwood, S., 1995, The Benefits of Public Art, The polemics of permanent art in public places, London
Shakespeare, T., 2018, Disability: The Basics, London
Shaw, R., 1987, The Arts and the People, London
Shiner, L., 2003, The Invention of Art: A Cultural History, Chicago
Simon, N., 2010, The Participatory Museum,Museum 2.0. Kindle Edition
64 Million Artists with Arts Council England, 2018, Cultural Democracy in Practice, London
Smith., C., 1998, Creative Britain, London
Solnit, R., 2016, Hope In The Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, Edinburgh
Somekh, B. & Lewin. C. eds., 2005, Research Methods in the Social Sciences, London
Stevens, W., 1997, Collected Poetry & Prose, New York
Theatre Workshop 2009, Oh What a Lovely War, Joan Littlewood, ed., London
Thompson, J., 2009 Performance Affects: Applied Theatre and the End of Effect, London
Thompson, J., Hughes, J. & Balfour, M. 2009 Performance in Place of War, London
Tiller, C. 2016, Power Up, Creative People and Places, London
Tobelem, J-M., 2016, La culture pour tous, Paris
Todorov., T., 2006, In Defence of the Enlightenment, London
Tolkien, J. R. R.. 1966, The Fellowship of the Ring, London
Tolstoy, L., 1995, What is Art?Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, London
Turino, C., 2014, The Point of Culture: Brazil Turned Upside Down, ed. Paul Heritage. Rosie Hunter & Poppy Spowage, London
Turnbull, G., ed., 2015, The Questions We Ask Together, Open Engagement
Tusa, J., 1999, Art Matters, Reflecting on Culture,London
Van Erven, E., 1988, Radical People’s Theatre, Indiana
Van Erven, E., 1992, The Playful Revolution: Theatre and Liberation in Asia, Indiana
Van Erven, E., 2001, Community Theatre: Global Perspectives, London
van Erven, E., 2013, Community Art Power: Essays from ICAF 2011Rotterdam
Van Erven, E., 2013, Community Arts Dialogues, Utrecht
Wallinger, M. and Warnock, M., eds. 2000, Art for all? Their policies and our cultureLondon
Weingärtner, J., 2012, The Arts as a Weapon of War: Britain and the Shaping of National Morale in World War II, New York
White, M., 2009, Arts Development in Community Health: A Social Tonic, Oxford
Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. 2009, The Spirit Level, Why more equal societies almost always do better, London
Williams, R., 1983, Keywords, A vocabulary of culture and society, London
Williams, R., 1989, Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy Socialism, London
Witts, R., 1998, Artist Unknown, An Alternative History of the Arts Council, London
Zemke, R., Raines, C., & Filipczak, B., 2000, Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace, New York.
A Restless Art 