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Arlene Goldbard | Sophie Hope | Owen Kelly | François Matarasso

once a week audio essays, conversations and discussions about cultural democracy, community-based art, and the commons.

  1. Position, influence & income

    2D AGO

    Position, influence & income

    Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received to her paper Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience, and what she hopes happens next.   Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | Episode 82 January 2nd | 2026   PARTICIPANTS Sophie Hope | Su Jones | Owen Kelly COMMENTARY Last summer Su Jones finished writing Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience, a report formed around case studies of 14 visual artists from three English regions. She had been working on it for the last two years. In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received, and her feelings about them. She discusses the position of an independent researcher and the influence she has, or doesn’t have. She talks about the precarious position that visual artists occupy in a country in which increasing numbers of people occupy precarious positions. Should artists receive a basic incomes, as they have in Irish experiments, or does that simply amount to special pleading? Would a better proposal involve everyone receiving a universal basic income which artists can use to enable them to practice as artists, golfers can use to practice golf, and chess players can use to practice chess? REFERENCES Su Jones: Artists’ Lives: ecologies for resistance, an overview Su Jones’ writings at Arts Professional Su Jones’ article at Arts Professional (paywall) Su Jones’ article at Arts Monthly (paywall) Ireland: basic income for artists

    24 min
  2. Redemption

    12/19/2025

    Redemption

    Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about redemption: : the understanding that we can learn from experience and choose to realign some aspect of our lives to our deepest values. How much do people believe positive change is possible? How much are people’s ideas of possibility constrained by a certainty that our pasts over-determine our future?   DECEMBER 9 | SERIES 2025 STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 59   PARTICIPANTS Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso COMMENTARY On episode 59 of A Culture of Possibility, co-hosts Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about redemption: the understanding that we can learn from experience and choose to realign some aspect of our lives to our deepest values. We were moved to explore this by the prevalence of “cancel culture” in the US and to an extent, the UK.  Once a phenomenon of the left, now strongly influential on the right, people are singled out and vilified for things they said or did decades earlier, or they become targets of persistent, angry campaigns aimed at shaming or ostracizing them for using objectionable language or disagreeing with those in power.  Core to community-based arts is the idea that when people speak for themselves, representing their truths, they may influence others to listen deeply and reach a more loving or just understanding.  These days, how much do people believe positive change is possible? How much are people’s ideas of possibility constrained by certainty that our pasts over-determine our futures?  We support freedom of expression and believe in redemption. Can people like us influence cultures that don’t?  REFERENCES Shadow World: anatomy of a cancellation

    55 min
  3. The Intercessor

    12/05/2025

    The Intercessor

    When Arlene Goldbard is not being a cultural activist or a consultant, she paints. When she is not painting she writes. She writes essays and novels. Her latest novel The Intercessor has just come out. Owen Kelly talks to Arlene about how this specific burst of writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve.   DECEMBER 5 | SERIES 2025 STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 81   PARTICIPANTS Arlene Goldbard | Owen Kelly COMMENTARY This month Owen Kelly discusses Arlene Goldbard’s new book, a novel titled The Intercessor, and asks why she chose to write this unusual kind of novel at this particular time. The novel offers a linked series of short stories, each foregrounding one character from a group whose stories eventually interlock. All of the characters have political, social or spiritual issues which come to seem less like categories than like different coloured lenses through which we can approach the world. The novel explores the Jewish Renewal movement, among other themes, without wanting its audience limited to Jews or even less to Jews with an interest in the Jewish Renewal movement. Arlene explains how this specific writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve.  REFERENCES Arlene on Wikipedia  Arlene’s website  Arlene Goldbard: Clarity (2004)  Arlene Goldbard: The Wave (2013) Arlene Goldbard: The Intercessor (2025) Jewish Renewal, described on Wikipedia  Adin Steinsaltz: The Thirteen Petalled Rose

    49 min
  4. Water Talks

    10/17/2025

    Water Talks

    Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Betsy Damon whose work with water has had a healing impact across the globe. She talks about her work from early projects in China to her current undertakings.   OCTOBER 17 | SERIES 2025 STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 57 PARTICIPANTS   Betsy Damon | Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso COMMENTARY Betsy Damon is an internationally-recognized artist whose public work and living systems, such as the Living Water Garden, have received widespread acclaim.  In 1991 Damon founded Keepers of the Waters,[23] a nonprofit organization that serves as an international community to encourage "art, science and community projects for the understanding and remediation of living water systems." The nonprofit is run with a collaborative approach and was started with the support of the Hubert Humphrey Institute. In 2006, Damon, alongside a group of artists, scientists, and funders, met in Vancouver and created a summary report for UNESCO titled Art in Ecology – A Think Tank on Arts and Sustainability. UNESCO had commissioned a report in advance of this meeting titled Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoART Practice, of which the meeting and summary report were a result. She is the author of Water Talks: Empowering Communities to Know, Restore, and Preserve their Waters. On episode 57 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Betsy Damon.  Her work with water has had a healing impact across the globe and in this fascinating episode, she talks about her early projects in China and the work she’s undertaking now.  She also shares excellent advice for others who want to help.   REFERENCES   Betsy Damon’s website Betsy Damon’s CV Betsy Damon in Wikipedia

    47 min

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once a week audio essays, conversations and discussions about cultural democracy, community-based art, and the commons.