Category Archives: Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art

Further thoughts on dissent

Posted on March 2, 2020 by alison jeffers

In an earlier post on this website (April 5, 2017), Alison Jeffers wrote about the idea of community artists as dissenters. Starting from Clare Higney’s view of community artists as people who strive to ensure that ‘the door’ stays ‘open’, she refers to ideas from several writers and activists on some key aspects of dissent. These include the centrality of dissent to ‘democratic governance’ and to politics itself (Ivie 2005), and the role of dissent in keeping ‘an alternative vision alive’ (Williams 1961). Continue reading →

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Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art: the British Community Arts Movement goes Gold Open Access!

Posted on September 25, 2018 by alison jeffers

The book Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art: the British Community Arts Movement edited by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriarty is now available free online. For those who want to access the book now just click on the … Continue reading →

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The ‘Cultural Democracy’ Conference: Reflections

Posted on April 10, 2018 by gerrimoriarty1virginmediacom

I am inspired, just as I was over thirty years ago, when Cathy Mackerras, co-founder of Telford Community Arts and speaker on the first panel of the day, produces their membership card from 1986. ‘Contributing towards the development of a … Continue reading →

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Cultural Democracy, yesterday, today and tomorrow

Posted on April 6, 2018 by alison jeffers

  Yesterday we held a symposium at the University of Manchester which was attended by artists, academics, policy makers, creative practitioners, and others. We heard from Huw Wahl, Owen Kelly, Sophie Hope, Steven Hadley, Cathy Mackerras, Steve Vickers, Nick Wilson, … Continue reading →

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We’re Making History

Posted on September 8, 2017 by alison jeffers

Thank you to François Matarasso for the next input in our series of guest blogs. François blogs regularly on https://arestlessart.com/ and we are very grateful to him for engaging with Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art to express his ideas about … Continue reading →

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A Living Proposition

Posted on June 20, 2017 by alison jeffers

Between 2010 and 2017 we interviewed over 20 artists as part of the research for Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art. Over the next few months the blog will provide an opportunity to hear from some of them … Continue reading →

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The Dissenters

Posted on April 5, 2017 by alison jeffers

The rhetoric of dissent During our research we were really struck by Clare Higney’s metaphor in her report on the links between community arts and the trade union movement, when she described the community artist as the awkward person ‘standing … Continue reading →

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