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FRANÇOIS MATARASSO (Honorary Professor, RGU)

Biographical Statement

François Matarasso is an internationally renowned cultural policy researcher and writer who has developed, financed and published groundbreaking research into the social, cultural impact of the arts and related subjects. He has developed critical conceptual models to re-valuing arts and culture that have become standard in much of the participatory arts sector. He has helped shape cultural policy in this country and abroad, undertaking art projects as far afield as Eastern Europe and South America and has published widely (see web site for downloads of papers: http://web.me.com/matarasso.

François has worked with the On the Edge Research programme (OTE) in the School since 2001 as external research associate. His thinking informed the first phase of OTE by contributing conceptual models to revalue the arts in culture. This association in turn informed his research in rural touring and heritage leading to more nuanced concepts such as the value of imperfect systems of cultural evaluation in his latest research. François is an Honorary Professor of the Centre for Cultural Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He has been a Council member of Arts Council England since 2005. François was made an Honorary Professor with RGU in 2007.

Personal Statement

My research project for the Clore Leadership Programme is ‘Open Source Art: New strategies for shared creation’, asking the question - What new approaches are professional artists developing to share creative authorship of their work with non-professional artists? The aim is to map some of the new strategies that artists are now using and – importantly – to conceptualise their relationship with each other and with existing practice. The research may be able to produce a tentative typology of this work.

I also contribute to the cultural policy aspect of the OTE programme building on my role within the first phase of On the Edge (2001-4).

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