Culture, democracy and the right to make art: the British Community Arts Movement (edited by Alison Jeffers and Gerry Moriarty, London, Bloomsbury, 2017) 263 pp., £64.80 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-4742-5835-7

Abstract

With cultural democracy ‘having a moment’, Moriarty and Jeffers curation recollections reclaims some of the knowledge of the community arts movement of the pre-digital 1970s and 1980s and emphasises its intrinsic roots in wider social and political movements for greater democracy.

As arts and cultural policy scholars and practitioners will be aware, ‘cultural democracy’ is having a moment. Since the publication of this book by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriarty (with associated events in Manchester and Belfast) the topic of cultural democracy has become increasingly prevalent. Forthcoming conferences in York (Be SpectACTive!, October 2018) and Manchester (The International Conference of Social Theory, Politics and the Arts, November 2018) will engage in debates around the notion of cultural democracy and the role of audience participation in performing arts and cultural policy.