Power is Real

Joe Lambert is one of the originators of the digital storytelling phenomenon and founder and Executive Director of Storycenter, an international participatory media training and consulting nonprofit organization based in Berkeley. Nearly 30 years on, he talks with Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso about the practice, its ethics and values, its challenges, and its power.

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk with David Ramy and Bruno Homem of SAMP in Portugal about co-creating original opera with incarcerated youth.
This episode focuses on one of three projects that are part of Traction, “opera co-creation for social transformation.” David Ramy and Bruno Homem work with SAMP, The Sociedade Artística Musical dos Pousos, an independent music school in Leiria, central Portugal. They tell us how they worked with young inmates, their families, the cutting-edge technology of the Co-Creation Stage, and a great range of artistic collaborators to make a powerful new community opera, and what may come from it.

How and why should we evaluate community-based arts projects? In this episode, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso offer their own answers and explore many of the ways current practice misses the mark.
They ask what has gone wrong with “best practices?” What role does risk aversion play in funding? They look at how nonprofit funding has become distorted by corporate models; the underlying class biases that shape funding; and how these problems are structural, affecting the sector regardless of how conscientious and well-intentioned the individuals running programs may be.
Arlene and François don’t always agree and you may disagree with both of them!

Dave Loewenstein is a muralist, printmaker and community organizer based in Lawrence, Kansas. In addition to his more than twenty public works in Kansas, examples of his dynamic and richly colored community-based murals can be found across the United States, and in Northern Ireland, South Korea and Brazil. Loewenstein’s prints, which focus on social justice issues, are exhibited internationally and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Yale University, and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles.
Arlene Goldbard and Francois Matarasso talk with Dave Loewenstein. We talk about the strength of the US mural movement, the centrality of place, the challenge of supporting the work, the amazing story of In ‘zhúje ‘waxóbe/Sacred Red Rock Project, returning a sacred object to its rightful owners, the Kaw Nation—and much more.

Arlene Goldbard and Francois Matarasso talk with Lucy Wright, a visual artist, artistic researcher, writer, and contemporary folk artist based in West Yorkshire, England.
Who defines "folk" and why? What aspects of folk art may be invisible to (or suppressed by) tradition's gatekeepers? Can we reclaim and renew language as the practices it describes change with the times? Join us for a fascinating conversation.

Arlene Goldbard and Francois Matarasso join forces with Owen Kelly to talk policy for cultural democracy with Owen Kelly, taking off from the Porto Santo Charter adopted last year as part of Portugal's Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Who are such statements for?
What impact can they have?
How should they be done?

In the 14th episode of A Culture of Possibility, co-hosts François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard interview two accomplished makers of theater with older performers — David Slater (founder and now associate member of Entelechy Arts in South London) and Alan Lyddiard (Artistic Director of The Performance Ensemble in Leeds).
They share their stories, describe their processes in helping to create new forms of theater that serve the people they work with rather than imposing conventional forms that leave them out, and talk about the people and work that have inspired them. Alan explained that "I don't find much interest going to the theater, and seeing the well-made play anymore. I find it dull, mostly. But I find it exceptionally rewarding to be on the streets of a city and see the people working away doing what they do, and being creative in their daily lives. And that's the bit that I would like to capture and try to get hold of and try to work with and get to know better."

In the 13th episode of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard talks with California-based visual artist Cynthia Tom, creator of A Place of One’s Own, “An art-making and exhibition-based organization dedicated to sparking the transformation of women from heartache to resilience.”
They talk about patterns of trauma arising for Asian American and other immigrant women and how art can help to heal them, patriarchy, colonization, and intergenerational relationships.
Cohost François Matarasso is taking a break and will be back in coming months.