Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art

Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art : The British Community Arts Movement, edited by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriarty has been published in hard-back by Bloomsbury Methuen and is scheduled to be published in paper-back in December 2018.

Reviewers say:

‘This is a vital collection for those of us undertaking, teaching and researching a whole range of practices that are descended – directly or indirectly -from the community arts movement. It offers welcome reminders of what motivated a key period of innovation -ideas of how art could stand for things by standing with people in their communities…. In the conclusion, the editors offer hope that the revolutionary impetus of community arts has not been lost, but lives on in a persistent spirit of dissent.’  Gareth White, review in New Theatre Quarterly.

‘This is an essential read for artists, arts professionals, academics and anyone else interested in better understanding the legacy of the community arts movements and its subsequent appropriation and instrumentalisation at the hands of the establishment. The book is a satisfying read that not only sheds new light on community arts and its offspring, participatory arts and socially engaged art, but that also offers new insights that are at times deeply personal and at other times more academic and theoretical. It may even encourage some artists and organisations to self-organise in new forms of community arts practices that offer real dissent.” –.’  Stephen Pritchard, review in ArtsWork Alliance newsletter

More information about the book is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/culture-democracy-and-the-right-to-make-art-9781474258388/

Alison and Gerri have also set up a blog about community arts and related arts practices at https://communityartsunwrapped.com/