A State of Culture

François Matarasso is taking a break for medical treatment. We hope he will rejoin us very soon.
On episode 47 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard interviews Clementine Sandison, an artist who works with people in Scotland to build solidarity networks, improve livelihoods and access to training for landworkers, and campaigns on land justice.
Clementine works as co-Director of Alexandra Park Food Forest, a community greenspace in the East end of Glasgow where volunteers produce food, cook and share meals, organize community celebrations, and explore notions of commoning and how to steward public land.

In episode 46 of A Culture of Possibility, while François Matarasso is taking a break for medical treatment, Arlene Goldbard interviews Libby Lenkinski, Founder and President of Albi.org, “a new fund, institute and lab that uses cultural vehicles to establish paradigm-shifting narratives by and about Palestinians and Jews”.
Albi does many things. It supports film and TV projects. It aims to influence the creative industries, expanding the space for critical voices in cultural production to thrive and be true vehicles for change. It also supports a cohort of flagship artists working in diverse fields.

In episode 45 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso continue a discussion they began in episode 42. They talk about words that are used in our fields of work: how they are used, why, and the impact they may have.
This time, they focus on community, its use and misuse; intuition, discernment, and truth, three related words that hint at the search for clarity; and identity and diversity, which read differently in France where François is based than in the U.S. where Arlene lives.
Does it go without saying that each word means something different to each of the co-hosts? Every one can be used in an ideal sense which doesn’t provoke much disagreement, but it’s where the words describe practices that are far from ideal that complexity sets in.

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk with William Frode de la Foret, Art Director of Cork Community Art Link in Ireland for the past 30 years.
Cork Community Art Link “work with people to create a sense of community identity and collective pride enabling people to learn more about themselves and the world around them all the while having fun”. Their work aims to engage people “both as participants and spectators in public spaces, developing new ways of connecting with the arts and encouraging them to come along, learn new skills and make a creative contribution to the community”.
Arlene and François talk to William about his work in community street performance such as parades and street theatre; about building strong long-term relationships around community identity and collective pride; and about engaging people both as participants and spectators in public spaces through community art projects.

On episode 43 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk with France Trépanier and Chris Creighton-Kelly, based in British Columbia.
France is a visual artist, curator and researcher of Kanien’kéha:ka and French ancestry; Chris is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and cultural critic born in the UK with South Asian/British roots.
Together, they direct Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires, a multi-year arts initiative whose main objective is to place Indigenous arts at the centre of the Canadian arts system through gatherings, public presentations, incubation projects, residencies, research and more aimed at generating new knowledge.

It’s episode 42 of A Culture of Possibility, which means no guest this time. Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about some of the words commonly used in discussions of cultural democracy and community-based arts, include culture, art, authenticity and creativity. Humpty Dumpty may have said “When I use a word, it means exactly what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less,” but we think communication, effectiveness, and collaboration depend on exploring meanings for both differences and points of connection.
What words would like you like explored?
In this discussion Arlene and François draw from the work originated by Raymond Williams n his 1976 book Keywords, which has had many subsequent editions. They also reference New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, edited by Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg, and Meaghan Morris, and published in 2005; one of several inspired by Williams’ book.

Natalia “Nati” Linares is a cultural organizer and communications strategist who works to expand the horizons for economic fairness and stability to the creative community. Through her work as artist and communications organizer and cofounder of Art.coop, an organization that addresses inequality among artists and culture workers, she helps creatives and culture workers change conversations about the role that art plays in changing our social and economic systems.
Natalia spent more than a decade working in the music industry before joining the New Economy Coalition, a network of over 150 groups focused on building the solidarity economy movement in the U.S. and internationally. In 2021, she co-authored the report Solidarity Not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy, which traced the long history of artists organizing for economic justice and pushed funders to invest in solutions to the root causes of systemic failures that leave artists vulnerable. Art.coop supports artistic communities to provide for themselves and increase collective ownership of housing and creative businesses, as well as build solidarity in the field by speaking more openly about the harsh realities of making a living in their industries while tapping into legacies of artist resistance.
In Culture of Possibility #41, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Nati Linares, whose focus is the solidarity economy for artists, with its resist/fight and build model: calling attention to what’s wrong, experimenting with alternatives. We talk about Nati’s grounding in the music business, leading to an understanding of capitalism and how it works or doesn’t for artists, and the research she and her colleagues have done on alternative models for financing artists’ work.

In Culture of Possibility #40, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview James Thompson, Professor of Applied and Social Theatre at the University of Manchester.
James Thompson was the founder In Place of War, a project researching and developing arts programs in war zones and has extensive experience working with and writing about theatre under such conditions. The project describes itself as “a global organisation that uses artistic creativity in places impacted by conflict and climate change as a tool for positive change. We enable grassroots change-makers in music, theatre and across the arts to transform cultures of violence and suffering into hope, opportunity and freedom.”
Arlene Goldbard, François and James talk about his journey and his work and what we might learn about shifting perspective from eulogy to criticism, to solidarity, to love, consciously valuing what is good.