Arlene & François reflect

On Culture of Possibility podcast #29, listen to François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard interview members of TEAM from National Theatre Wales.
We talk with Natasha Borton, Anastacia Ackers, and Naomi Chiffi about two multi-year community projects: one in Wrexham and one in Pembrokeshire. These unfolded during COVID and engaged many hundreds of community members. One focused on nature and the environment, while the other focused on issues surrounding homelessness.
Both François and Arlene believe we can all learn a lot from the process they describe.

In Episode 28 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard talk with Ben Fink and Kate Fowler about the new two-volume publication from Roadside Theater in Appalachia, Art in A Democracy, comprising play scripts and commentary from this stellar community-based theater’s history in Appalachian coal country and beyond, 1975-2000.
We touch on the need for sharing learning, generation-to-generation; the impact of changes in public funding that impose scarcity and competition; the obstacles capitalism places in the path of cultural democracy; and more.

In Episode 27 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard talk about — given the scale of the challenges communities face — what community-based art can do.
They share powerful ideas from John Berger and Vaclav Havel, their own sense of the current social and political context, and what makes the best work generative, engaging, and co-creative for all.

This month Arlene Goldbard and François Mattarasso talk with Beverly Naidus about her life and work. Beverly’s art projects focus on environmental crises that create problems for humans. Her works address social issues such as racism, consumerism, body image, nuclear threats, cultural identity.
Beverly has written several artist books including One Size Does Not Fit All (1993) and What Kinda Name is That? (1996) which has been discussed by academics in the field including Paul Von Blum, Lucy R. Lippard, and reviewed by contemporary journals.

In Episode 25 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard talk with Jasmina Ibrahimovic, director of the Rotterdams Wijktheater and the International Community Arts Festival that it hosts.
Jasmina is also a dynamic force of nature who has amazing stories to tell about her journey from the former Yugoslavia to a refugee camp in the Netherlands, remarkably powerful community-based work, and much more. The festival will happen in March/April for the first time post-pandemic. Join us to learn all about it.
Moreover, we have plans to attend ICAF and (among other things) record a series of podcasts that we will broadcast almost live during the period of the festival. Stand by for news of this in the next two Miaaw Monthly newsletters.

In Episode 24 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard talk about Arlene’s forthcoming book. In The Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does It Mean to Be Educated? comes at its subject from three angles: paintings, including portraits of of eleven individuals whose work helped Arlene understand and become herself; a short memoir about each person, from James Baldwin to Paulo Freire to Alice Neel to Jane Jacobs; and essays that look at the harm that’s been done by privileging credentialed expertise and devaluing lived knowledge.
Tune in for the book’s backstory including family drama, fifties cultural alienation, outrage at the conversion of social goods to profit centers, a visit to a psychic, a pandemic silver lining, plus Arlene reading excerpts about Nina Simone, museum trustees’ elitism, and Isaiah Berlin!

In Episode 23 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard interview Carol Bebelle, cofounder of Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, about her decades of work for cultural democracy.
Carol “has to her credit a book of original poetry In a Manner of Speaking, and is presented among other New Orleans writers in the Anthology From a Bend in the River, edited by Kalamu ya Salaam. She has several published interviews, testimonies and a chapter in the recently published Civic Engagement in the Wake of Katrina, edited by Amy Koritz and George J. Sanchez”.
This makes for a vivid and uplifting conversation that touches on Hurricane Katrina, racial healing, the power of art and culture to root us in heritage and envision a future we want to help bring about.
Listen and be inspired!

In Episode 22 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard interview Yuriy Vulkovsky about his decades of experience working with communities and institutions in Bulgaria and nearby states.
You’ll learn about Bulgaria’s network of 3700 independent community cultural centers, a unique feature of this culture; and from vivid stories that illuminate the challenges and opportunities in engaging people and resources in a country marked by poverty and history, where people “live in different centuries.”