In this episode Francois Matarasso reads some Old Words that he wrote a long time ago, and feels have become relevant to him and us once more. This time he gives us an extract from a book called Where We Dream: West Bromwich Opera Society and the fine art of musical theatre, published in 2012 by Multistorey.
The book begins by quoting Larry Shriner, from 2001, who wrote that “the modern system of art is not an essence or a fate but something we have made”. Francois then begins by noting that “ members of West Bromwich Operatic Society can be sensitive about being called amateurs, not because it is inaccurate, but because of the perception that amateur is a synonym for mediocre, self-regarding, even incompetent. And it is true that the word is sometimes used almost as an insult—and not least between artists themselves”.

On months that have a fifth Friday we break from our normal schedule and produce something else related in one way or another to cultural democracy. In 2022 we will delve into radio archives to bring back some historical examples of serials and comedies that let us hear unfiltered aspects of the world as it seemed to our grandparents.
In this episode we go back to Halloween night on October 31, 1938.
That night Orson Welles’ and the Mercury Theater broadcast an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” that stands as a vivid reminder of the power of the media and of the general public’s vulnerability when it is gripped by fear. It also still stands as one of the great media hoaxes of the twentieth century.

Sophie Hope, Lizzie Lloyd and Katy Beinart recorded a live unedited conversation on 30 March 2022 at the Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts during a public event to launch Lloyd and Beinart's new publication, Acts of Transfer.
The publication reflects Lloyd and Beinart's collaborative work revisiting past artworks that involve social engagement and/or public participation. The discussion here delves into their motives for doing this work, how they went about it and some of the issues and questions that emerged through the retracing of past projects to create new readings and interpretations.

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.

In Episode 15 of A Culture of Possibility Arlene Goldbard, Owen Kelly and François Matarasso discussed the Porto Santo Charter and a set of issues that arose from that.
In this episode of A Genuine Inquiry Owen Kelly continues a line of thought from that discussion and inquires into a key question that has hovered over every one of our podcasts: what might we mean when we talk about cultural democracy? Why might people need the term, and what can they do with it?
He delves into the history of the term and finds that its original uses differ significantly from how many people would like to use it today. He draws upon the work of Rachel Davis DuBois to suggest what it could mean, and why we need the term in any progressive vocabulary.

In this episode Francois Matarasso reads some Old Words that he wrote a long time ago, and feels have become relevant to him and us once more.
Making Nothing Happen began as a talk that Francois gave on 3 September 2016, at the 5th Anniversary of Tandem, in Berlin. The Tandem Cultural Partnership promotes cooperation between artists and cultural producers in Europe and neighbouring territories including Ukraine, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa. Francois revised it early in the darker year of 2022.
As part of the Old Words series within a series, Francois will make the printed version of this essay available for download as a pdf at his Parliament of Dreams website at the same time as this podcast appears online.

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?

Sophie Hope has just written a contribution to a book called The Failures of Public Art and Participation. In this episode she expands upon some of the arguments in her chapter, We Thought We Were Going To Change The World: socially engaged art and cruel optimism.
She bases her analysis on a reading of Laurent Berlant’s book Cruel Optimism and uses a long running work of her own, the 1984 Dinners, as the starting point for a practical look at how we might thrive through solidarity in the face of the frustrations of our cruel optimism.