RECOMMMENDED READING
“We, as artists, need to be radical and political. We need community art centres, not multi-million pound “landmark” art venues that only cater to a “culturally voracious” 8% of the UK population³. Their “outreach” and “engagement” initiatives are, at worst, a sham, at best, naïve. Socially engaged artists and participatory artists see the world in terms of democratising fine art – as missionaries for state-sanctioned culture⁴, hell-bent on civilising the “uncultured” masses, who are, of course, just as cultured as anyone else: it’s just that the state and its emissaries don’t count other cultures as “culture”. Community artists instead call for cultural democracy⁵ – for the recognition of all forms and means of cultural activity and production to be considered as equally important. We need to support local cultural production. We need to enable people to make their own cultures, their ways. And artists should be supported to support community members⁶ so they can rebuild and develop their own cultural activities and forms. Arts institutions hoover up too much money for far too little benefit to most people and most artists. Community artists help communities to make things better for themselves. Community artists are led by people, sometimes leading by example, but only when needed to help community members gain confidence to do what they want, not what they’re told to do by others.”
