European inventory of
societal values of culture

Jeffers & Moriarty - Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art

Jeffers, A., & Moriarty, G. (Eds.) (2017). Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art. The British Community Arts Movement. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781474258357

In this research collection, the authors present the history of the Community Arts Movement, which ‘was a well-known but little understood and largely undocumented creative revolution that began as part of the counter-cultural scene in the late 1960s.’ Furthermore, the authors claim that anyone who has ever encountered a community festival or educational project in a gallery or museum or visited a local arts centre could be said to be part of the on-going story of the community arts. The subject matter of this book can hence be seen as a matrix for other socially engaged movements that have spread in various contexts, especially across Europe, particularly since the 1960s. These movements are in rupture with conventional and institutional definitions of culture and try to mobilise and include relegated or stigmatised groups as cultural actors.

 

Jeffers & Moriarty “Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art. The British Community Arts Movement”