NOTE: This article by Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin was translated from the original French version which appeared on 16 January in La Presse, published in Montreal. I was one of several people interviewed for it. You can find the original version here. The original article described me as “autrice et référence mondiale en matière de démocratie culturelle,” …
One thing we’ve been hearing a lot about since the quadruple pandemic hit is the hope that instead of trying to restore our civic and market systems to their former flawed and inequitable state, we should see this enforced pause as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make essential change. People see the opportunity to strengthen democracy, …
Seven weeks ago I published two essays on the way U.S. arts advocates—the established institutions in particular—responded to the pandemic. The first one criticized the narrow, economistic, and backward-looking calls for funding issuing from red-carpeted marble halls. The second one called for very different statements and actions, grounded in social benefit, with investment in jobs …
All this past week, I’ve been publishing writing by François Matarasso as part of his “virtual residency” on my blog. Yesterday we hosted a Zoom conversation with artists who place their gifts at the service of community. We put our heads together to talk about possible futures, knowing that while prediction is pointless, preparation and …