Co-creation is

A Selfless Art

This site follows the evolution of a book that develops and rebalances my last, A Restless Art . Its concern is the practice of co-creation, as I have known it. A Selfless Art complements and completes its brother, yin to its yang, moon to its sun, dark to its light. Subjective, imperfect and incomplete, it is personal, final and open-ended; it might never be finished or published.

François Matarasso, August 2026

  • After ICAF, after me

    I got home from the International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam this evening, after five intense days of exposure to some current trends and practices across the world. As always, after such experiences, I have many impressions and mixed feelings.… more ›

  • This shape-shifting border territory

    When I am facilitating a co-creation project, how can I ensure that the experience is as rewarding for those present as I hope? That question opens many further questions, which is why this practice is restless and so rewarding to… more ›

  • The personal is philosophical

    There’s been a bit of a gap in posts here, partly intentional, partly not. Intentional, because I do not want to exhaust my subscribers’ patience or interest with endless posts. If that happens, just unsubscribe: you can always check back… more ›

  • Community art or co-creation?

    Last Friday, Arlene Goldbard and I recorded an episode of our podcast. Mostly, we have guests but about a third of the podcasts are just conversations between us, and this is one of those. It should be available next week,… more ›

  • So many books

    There’s a corridor in my house where I keep books I don’t use regularly, books about art, culture and community. I went to look for something today (a book by Tim Ingold, which I didn’t find) and as I searched… more ›

  • Kay Redfield Jamison on knowledge

    It has been difficult at times to weave together the scientific discipline of my intellectual field with the more compelling realities of my own emotional experiences. Kay Redfield Jamison, 2015, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Picador,… more ›

  • Listening in silence

    Listening is one of the ideas I’ve been preoccupied with in reflecting on my past work: what it is, how it works, why it’s important, how to do it better. And, like so much else that I’ve been thinking about… more ›

  • Michael Palin on listening

    ‘Most of all, listening requires you to forget your own ego, to set aside your own preoccupations and anxieties, and to give your full concentration to whoever’s speaking to you.’ Michael Palin, quoted in Katie Colombus, How to Listen, Samaritans,… more ›

  • The poverty of political language

    In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.  George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’, Horizon, April 1946 Language is critical to the problems we now face in the relations between the governors and the… more ›

  • Reading and writing

    The little flurry of quotes that I’ve shared over the past week was both a way to ease myself back into writing here, and a pointer to the diversity of ideas I’m trying to organise into a book. I’ve read… more ›