Sophie Hope recorded this live report on the final day of the Rural School of Economics summer camp, organised by Kathrin Böhm and Wapke Feenstra of Myvillages, and the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. The camp took place in July 2023 in Lumsden in Aberdeenshire, the home of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. 

She talks with fellow participants about what they got up to during the summer camp and some of the questions that came up during their stay in rural Aberdeenshire. They explore reflections and suggestions on the issue of “Who has the Energy?”, the question set for the summer camp so that they might explore the material and immaterial energies that support cultural work.

SSW Rural Economics Summer Camp

Albert Potrony’s website describes him as “an artist with a participatory practice examining ideas of identity, community and language. Potrony is interested in generating social spaces through his projects, and participation from diverse groups and individuals is a key element of his work.” 

In this conversation with Hannah Kemp-Welch he introduces his participatory arts practice, describing a recent project with young fathers in Gateshead and former members of an anti-sexist men’s group. Albert and Hannah talk about collaborative practice in detail, and the role of listening within this. 

‘Not knowing’ emerges as a key theme.

Albert Potrony - Listening & Not Knowing

Sam Metz describes their rationale as responding to “the premise of ‘neuroqueering’ (a term first coined by Nick Walker) which seeks to undermine or subvert dominant structures that remain hostile to non-normative neurodivergent bodyminds. I am interested in exploring the idea of ‘hostile’ spaces through my work with a particular focus on what relational connections mean within ecology.”

They go on to say that “in my socially engaged practice I am interested in exploring/ co-producing and defining new moralities for social structures that are safer for neurodivergent people”.

In this episode of Ways of Listening, Sam Metz describes looking for ways of working that don't privilege vision or verbal interactions, and describes a listening practice that extends through the body. They describe the importance of attunement to micro-cues to pick up on participants’ comfort levels, and consider how relationships affect our ability to act as a ‘receiver’. Sam shares methods from their practice, such as encouraging repetitive touch as a means of connecting with embodied feedback.

Sam Metz - Listening Through the Body

In the fifth episode of Ways of Listening, artist Jody Wood talks about listening as a practice of care - where to care is not to cure. Jody advocates for participatory ‘opt in’ structures for social practice art rather than co-creation, noting the complexity of human desires and potential for conflicting agendas. 

She goes on to question the expectations placed on artists to solve social issues. Using examples from projects taking place with social workers and in homelessness shelters, Jody talks through the need to resist the spectacle, and keep focus on process and the power of a relational practice. 

She also highlights the need to listen to yourself, as a spiritual practice of attunement.

Jody Wood - Hearing what isn't being said

In this episode Sophie Hope talks to four people connected to the MA degree course in Art and Social Practice at the University of the Highlands and Islands. According to the UHI website, “We are the only university based in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and we're a little different - we offer you the choice of studying at one of our colleges or research centres, over 70 local learning centres, or online from wherever you are.”

Sophie talks with Roxane Permar, founder and programme leader; Siún Carden, lecturer and module leader; Nicola Naismith, lecturer and module leader; and Mara Marxt Lewis, former student.

The group discuss the origins of the MA, the structure and content and what it’s like to teach and study on a remote course, where students develop work in the places they live and come together via online seminars and tutorials, a virtual annual symposium and residential winter school.

Highlands & Islands

In Culture of Possibility #40, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview James Thompson, Professor of Applied and Social Theatre at the University of Manchester. 

James Thompson was the founder In Place of War, a project researching and developing arts programs in war zones and has extensive experience working with and writing about theatre under such conditions. The project describes itself as “a global organisation that uses artistic creativity in places impacted by conflict and climate change as a tool for positive change. We enable grassroots change-makers in music, theatre and across the arts to transform cultures of violence and suffering into hope, opportunity and freedom.”

Arlene Goldbard, François and James talk about his journey and his work and what we might learn about shifting perspective from eulogy to criticism, to solidarity, to love, consciously valuing what is good.

Theatre in place of war

This episode is a live recording of an event in which Sophie Hope talks with artists Amy Feneck and Ruth Beale. Together they reflect on 12 years of collaborative practice, spanning art, politics and the ongoing need to talk about economics. 

The conversation that forms the heart of this episode was recorded at an event organised by the Alternative School of Economics on 9 March 2023 at Gasworks,in London, England.

Alternative School Of Economics

According to their web site, “Take A Part are the UK's leading socially engaged art (SEA) organisation, dedicated to supporting, furthering and sustaining SEA practice, community co-creation and community embedding placemaking in the UK.

We take a community-first approach to culture, supporting areas and people underrepresented and underserved in our society to develop cultural confidence, advocacy and skills to take action on change in their own communities through culture.

Our home is Plymouth, where we develop and test our models of best practice, but we work across the UK and internationally to support a larger community voice in our cultural sector. We have worked with large scale cultural institutions, universities, scientists, local authorities, trust and foundations and think tanks to centre communities in practice.”

Take A Part organises Social Making: “the UK’s only biennial symposium dedicated to socially engaged art practice, co-creation, and place-making”. In this episode Hannah Kemp-Wech and Sophie Hope talk to Kim Wide, the CEO and artistic director of Take A Part, about the symposium which will take place in Bristol on October 10 and 11. 

This episode acts as an introduction to a seven-part series that Miaaw.net and Take A Part will begin broadcast on Friday October 25, with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

075 Social Making - A New Iteration - Auphonic

Paul Crook is an artist, and also head of Communities and Learning at South London Gallery. We talk about his work with young people in both community art and gallery education settings, and creative strategies to facilitate listening. 

Paul uses mind maps to think with young people about artworks and programmes; one young person comedically calls him a ‘Democracy Scheduler’.

Paul Crook - Mapping Listening

Take A Part organises Social Making: “the UK’s only biennial symposium dedicated to socially engaged art practice, co-creation, and place-making”. For the fifth edition of the symposium Take A Part moved from their base in Plymouth to host the event in Bristol. It took place at Brix on October 10 and 11, with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.  

Sophie Hope and Hannah Kemp-Welch recorded a conversation during a convenient coffee break on the first day of the programme with participants who included Maureen Arhin, Claudia Collins, Damien McGlynn, Tamar Millen, and Claire Tymon.

This episode looks at what brought them all to Social Making, and what lessons they drew from the first set of workshops. They offer a range of views drawn from their reactions and responses. They discuss the terms used in the presentations and how the vocabulary used can serve to frame a debate.

Day 1: Live from the Coffee Break

As part of the fifth edition of Social Making: “the UK’s only biennial symposium dedicated to socially engaged art practice, co-creation, and place-making” Kim Wide and Anurupa Roy led a workshop exploring the implications of jugaad.

Kim Wide works as the founder and director of Take A Part in Plymouth, UK. Anurupa Roy works as an award-winning puppet designer and director of puppet-based theatre in Delhi, India.

The BBC has described jugaad as “an untranslatable word for winging it”. The word exists in Hindu, Urdu and Punjabi and describes using whatever you have to hand to make something you need; a process of frugal improvisation.

In this episode Sophie Hope and Hannah Kemp-Welch talk to Kim and Anurupa about their workshop; about the nature of jugaad, as a global practice of subversion by radical practice,; the collective politics that fuel jugaad; and what it might actually mean in an English, or European, context.

Jugaad - frugal innovation

Angharad Davies is an artist and architectural researcher, and a member of public works. Her research examines the communities that exist around local, publicly accessible spaces. She believes in architecture as biography, and writing as an architectural process. 

In this episode, we hear about her long term work with communities at Rurban in Poplar, London, and the activities and approaches they use to build relationships with local residents.

Angharad Davies: Building Trust Relationships

This episode addresses the question: how can we reclaim land from white colonial power structures? In it Hannah Kemp-Welch & Sophie Hope talk with Nadia Shaikh and Mark Teh, who both made presentations at Social Making 5.

Nadia Shaikh “joined Right to Roam in 2021 after 14 years in the nature conservation sector, convinced that mainstream 'nature protection' wasn't involving people in a meaningful way and that the connections between enclosure, land ownership and our devastating biodiversity loss were too big to ignore. She now lives in Scotland where she enjoys roaming free, rock pooling and kayaking. She covers the campaign’s operations, events, and work on social justice.”

Mark Teh “is a performance maker, researcher, and curator based in Malaysia. His practice is situated primarily in performance, but also operates via exhibitions, education, social interventions, writing, and curating.
He is a member of Five Arts Centre, and graduated with an MA in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London”.

In this episode Hannah, Mark, Nadia and Sophie discuss the different ways in which Right To Roam in England and the artists associated with Five Arts Centre in Kuala Lumpar approach the theory and practice of reclaiming land for democratic use.

Note:

Social Making iteration 5 took place on October 10 and 11, 2024, with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Reclaiming & Using Post-Colonial Land

On Episode 49 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso returns from medical leave to join Arlene Goldbard in considering the podcast as its fifth year begins. They explore the intentions that have guided them so far, and talk about key questions for the future. You are invited to respond with comments and suggestions. What do you need from the podcast?

A Culture of Possibility Now

This episode addresses two questions. How can we ensure more access and equality in the development of public spaces? How can we make certain that the voices of young people become embedded in planning processes?

Sophie Hope and Hannah Kemp-Welch discuss with Ben Bordwick and Leo Valls who both made presentations at Social Making in October 2024.

Wheeled users in the city

Youth Landscapers Collective is a youth arts organisation based in the National Forest area of England. We’re a collective of young people, artists and technicians who collaborate with our local community to explore this landscape’s industrial past and forest future.

In this episode we want to give you a sense of how we work together. YLC member Kris Kirkwood has built a sound narrative of our 2024 song-making project, using audio recordings from our sessions - from the seeds of our ideas through to performance. Here’s a bit of context about the project, to help set the scene:

In 2023, YLC created The Stage of Possibility – a vibrant, democratic space designed, built and curated by YLC to showcase stories and voices from the National Forest at Timber Festival. The project connected us back to the creative and resourceful communities that grew from the former coalpits and pipe works of this area. 

In 2024 we wanted to strengthen that connection and also perform together on the stage too! We created a set of locally inspired songs, in a project we called: WAYANNAEYINANYONNIT  (A Big Story).

Working with artists Rebecca Lee and Jessica Harby and our community we sought out the hidden stories of our local area, finding them in discussions with former mining engineer, pipe worker, and co-founder of Moira Replan Graham Knight, research visits to Moira Furnace Museum and The Magic Attic Community Archive, and sharing our own personal experiences. 

From Graham we learned stories of injustices small and large in the mine - the disappearance of cakes sent down for overtime workers and the tragic death of a young co-worker in an accident. From Clyde at Magic Attic we learnt local dialect and the definition and pronunciation of our title: WAYANNAEYINANYONNIT. 

More than anything we responded with heart to what it must have felt like to take part in each of these stories and what it's like to be living here today, many of our houses built over the unfilled mining tunnels.

The songs we made and performed share our experience of the National Forest, as the past, present and future overlap, canaries sing, children climb on the lime kilns, new words are shouted, and we make sure we're all alright.

How we work together

Hector MacInnes works in socially engaged art, sound and research. His practice includes spoken word, sonic fiction, installation, text, tech, music, radio, speculative design and organising things, often in collaboration with other artists and a diverse range of communities. 

Hector was born and grew up on the Isle of Skye, and his projects are deeply rooted in an ongoing interrogation of belonging, identity, legitimacy and lived experience of the more-than-urban, themes he’s brought to his practice-based doctoral research into the concept of the field, anthropocene rurality, and the ‘New Weird’. 

In this episode, Hannah Kemp-Welch talks in depth about a project Hector has been working on in a prison (HMP Inverness), and the particular sonic environment in which this work is situated.

Hector MacInnes - Listening through  Connection/Isolation

In episode 50 of “A Culture of Possibility,” Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about a remarkable book, Engineers of the Imagination: The Welfare State Handbook. 

First published in 1983, it’s both an account of a novel and exciting approach to community performance and a how-to manual for anyone who wants to use or adapt its tools and methods. 

The book conveys the spirit and generosity of the British community arts movement during those years, and gives François and Arlene a good excuse to reminisce about the impact of this innovative and influential work in Europe and the U.S.s for the future. 

You are invited to respond with comments and suggestions. What do you need from the podcast?

Welfare State - engineers of the imagination

Owen Griffiths describes himself as “an artist, workshop leader and facilitator. Using participatory and collaborative processes, his socially engaged practice explores the possibilities of art to create new frameworks, resources and systems.” From 2017-2019 he acted as co-director of Gentle/Radical, a community arts and social justice project based in Cardiff. He also leads several long-term projects.

Lucy Elmes works as a Contemporary Art Curator and Producer based in Plymouth. She leads the Curatorial Programme at Take A Part, strengthening the socially engaged art sector by connecting communities with artists to co-create impactful projects. 

Kim Wide MBE founded, and acts as CEO and Artistic Director of, Take A Part in 2008. Hailing from Canada, Kim started her work in museums and collections at the City of Toronto and Government of Ontario Art Collection before moving to the UK in 2003.

In this concluding episode of the Social Making special editions Owen, Lucy and Kim discuss with Sophie Hope and Hannah Kemp-Welch. They talk about the ways in which socially engaged art becomes part of larger social, politcal, educational and cultural streams, and how the role of the artist needs regular renegotiation. They look at their current practices, identify stress points and look forward to their possible futures.

Practices, Contexts and Futures

This episode was recorded live at a symposium titled ‘Listening Together: Practices for Community-Centred Listening’. 

The symposium was hosted by the research centre Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice at London College of Communication in February 2025. 

Our regular host Hannah Kemp-Welch chaired a panel with two artists: Beverley Bennett, who organises ‘gatherings’ to challenge the hierarchies inherent in workshop settings, and Sam Metz, who’s work with non-verbal participants invites listening ‘through the body’. 

The panel considers the question: what can we learn about listening from socially engaged artists? 

Beverley Bennett & Sam Metz: what can we learn about listening from socially engaged artists?

On episode 51 of “A Culture of Possibility,” Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk with David Cutler, Director of The Baring Foundation, based in London. 

One of Baring’s strategic grant areas is Arts & Mental Health, granting about £1 million per year over at least five years to organizations specializing in arts and creativity with people with mental health problems; supporting participatory artists from Global Majority communities in this work; and supporting more men to engage in creative mental health. They’ve published considerable material documenting this work. 

We’ll talk with David about how and why the Foundation chose this focus, the impact they’re having, and how their work fits into the larger arts funding landscape.

Creativity & Mental Illness

Sovay Berriman describes their work as “rooted in their experience of being Cornish, their culture’s shifting identity, and the mutability yet power of a sense of place”. She “uses her practice as a structure and prompt for action and discussion, and is committed to questioning balances of power”.

In 2015 Sovay trained as a plumbing and heating engineer and works in the construction industry alongside their art activity with a commitment to helping customers transition to low carbon heating. Their experiences in this line of work have developed the critical socio-economic and political aspects of their practice, particularly in relation to environment, care and the labour of making.

In this conversation she talks to Owen Kelly about her relationship to kernowek, the indigenous Cornish language, its conservation and nurturing, her recent provocation on Rewilding Arts Management, and the ways in which art, activism, and plumbing can work together.


Kernowek, Management & Rewilding-auphonic

With this podcast we begin a new set of summer reading suggestions for 2025. In the first episode of the summer (if indeed it is summer where you are) Owen Kelly and David Morley discuss Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century written by Christian Caryl and published in 2014.

Neither of them agree with Caryl’s political position but instead argue about the usefulness of the approach he takes to history. Rather than following an issue he traces five plot-threads across the year 1979 and argues that they intertwine in significant ways that narrative-based conventional history overlooks.

This, we might feel, is perhaps more prescient than it appeared when the book was first published. Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office have been chaotic but might better be seen as the culmination of a series of separate but related plot threads that originated in Bejing, Jerusalem, Moscow, New Delhi, Riyadh and Tehran, rather than in Washington. Understanding Caryl’s hypothesis might make making sense of the state of the world today somewhat easier.

David Morley is emeritus professor at the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths in the University of London.

Strange Rebels

This, the final episode of Ways of Listening, was recorded live by Hannah Kemp-Welch at the symposium ‘Listening Together: Practices for Community-Centred Listening’ at London College of Communication in February 2025. 

Drawing on their experiences and emerging practices, electroacoustic composer Julia Schauerman, queer artist and educator Samantha Dick, and Senior Lecturer at University of Arts London Lainy Malkani reflect on the creative and ethical issues of working with the recorded voices of others. Together, they consider what a reflective and responsible creative practice looks like. 

The discussion touches upon - consent and permission, artistic interpretation of recorded voices, representation and agency of the voice subjects, and practical challenges.

Samantha Dick, Lainy Malkani, Julia Schauerman - Reflective & Responsible

In Episode 52, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Lori Pourier, founder and Senior Fellow at the First Peoples Fund, which “supports the cultural, artistic and ancestral practices of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian artists, families and communities, helping them to thrive, heal and carry forward Indigenous creative expression, teachings and lifeways.” 

We talk about FPF’s work, its historical context, and the challenges posed by the MAGA regime.

First People: culture, art & ancestry

We interviewed John Phillips about The Museum of Unrest on December 6, 2024, at the time it launched its second collection, Good Design. 

Next month, in the middle of June 2025, the Museum of Unrest will launch its third collection, called Community Arts. This collection has been co-curated by John and Belinda Kidd, who has had a long and varied career in community arts, arts research, and evaluation. Currently her work focuses where it began: in Hackney, at Hoxton Hall and Four Corners centre for film and photography.

In this episode Owen Kelly talks to John Phillips and Belinda Kidd about the way they have assembled the collection, the range of content in the collection, and where they hope their efforts might all lead, both online and offline.

Museum of Unrest: the community arts collection

This month we have the second Friday Number Five of 2025. At the end of January we started another irregular series of Radio Miaaw: podcasts of music issued under Creative Commons licences; a theme we last explored four years ago.
 
This month we have a special and unexpected surprise. Moby and Little Walnut Productions have re-launched <strong>mobygratis</strong> with, their words “phenomenally expanded functionality and resources, making it the most robust iteration yet”.

They go on to say that “With the addition of 300 previously unreleased tracks, mobygratis provides creators with a revolutionary platform for accessing restriction-free music. This collection is part of an anarchist experiment in creative freedom, allowing unprecedented access to high-quality compositions.

Previously available only as stereo masters, mobygratis now offers hundreds of multitrack audio files. These high-resolution tracks invite collaboration by enabling creators to remix, customize, and fully adapt the music to their unique projects, fostering a spirit of shared creativity and innovation. 

Formats include stereo MP3, stereo WAV, and multitrack WAV - all completely free”.

In this episode we dig deeper into #mobygratis, take a look at the contract you receive when you register and download one or more tracks, and listen to a not-quite-random selection from the tracks available. You can find full episode notes with links to all the music at miaaw.net

#mobygratis

According to Wikipedia “Iain McGilchrist's 2009 work, The Master and His Emissary has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. It sought to consolidate research in brain lateralisation and to insist on the individual and cultural importance of the bi-hemisphere structure of the brain”. McGilchrist suggests that “we have become entranced by the version of the world brought into being by the left hemisphere and forgotten the insights produced by the right”.

His publishers persuaded him to write a very short book, Ways of Attending, which took the main arguments  of his larger, more complex and more technical work, and rewrote them as an extended essay for interested lay-people.

In this episode Owen Kelly looks at some of these arguments, quoting from Ways of Attending and McGilchrist’s other published extended essay, The Divided Brain.


Ways of Attending

On Episode 53 of A Culture of Possibility, “Money Changes Everything,” Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about funding for community-based art and cultural democracy in light of the two previous episodes featuring funders from the UK and US. 

What’s happening? What does it all mean? 

Where can we go from here?

Money Changes Everything

In this episode Sophie Hope talks to artist, researcher and teacher Anthony Schrag about a symposium he organised on 9 May 2025 at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.

The symposium, entitled Getting it right/Getting it wrong: Socially Engaged Art and Ethics was supported by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 

Sophie attended the symposium and in this discussion she and Anthony reflect on some of the discussions that they took part in during the event. They reflect on what ethics means to practitioners and their practice, and to assessors and onlookers.


The Only Way is Ethics

On episode 54 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview author Jeff Chang, known for his books on cultural subjects including hip-hop, race and racism, and Asian Americans. 

In May, Jeff posted to his Substack an account of how the Defense Department had removed his book, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Hip Hop History, written for young adults, from schools on US military bases around the world. The reasons given were Trump’s executive orders banning accounts of racism, gender and sexuality, and other such topics. 

Jeff joins us to tell the story and talk about what it means for the future of free expression and diversity. 

Booked in the USA

Episode 1 of of the first series of Meanwhile In An Abandoned Warehouse, a discussion about cultural democracy in theory and practice. All the episodes with additional commentary and linked references at http://miaaw.net

miaaw.net

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