Going, going…

Earlier this year, I decided to move to France. It was a painful choice, forced on me by the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. As someone with a mixed European heritage and whose work has taken me to almost every country of this lovely continent, I have found the closing of the English mind and borders profoundly distressing. After decades of free movement, I’m obliged to choose between living freely among the 450 million EU citizens trying to live together in peace and solidarity, or within an insular polity dreaming of lost grandeur. It’s really not much of a choice.

So, this summer, I packed up my office in Nottingham and left for France (though a family illness has necessitated my temporary return to the UK). One small consequence of moving my office was unearthing multiple copies of various books and reports I’ve published over years. Most, if not all, can already be downloaded as PDFs from my websites, but before taking this pile of paper to the recycling centre, I thought I’d see if anyone might want a paper copy.  

There’s no charge or time limit. The offer is limited to one copy per person (but you can request more than one book). Since A Restless Art is still on sale at Central Books (and listed as a bestseller!) I’ve not included it here. I can’t guarantee how quickly I’ll be able to post them or how long they’ll be available: in some case, I’ve only one or two copies to give away. I don’t expect a rush for 25-year old copies of Use or Ornament? but when they’re gone, they’re gone.

If you’d like a copy of any of these, please email me with details.

Regular Marvels

• A Wider Horizon: Creative Arts East and Rural Touring – 2015, A5, 114 pp. Looks at a programme to bring the arts to rural Norfolk and Suffolk, and asks what lessons it has for the arts and the future of community development; with drawings by Rosie Redzia.
• The Light Ships, Church, art and community in the Lincolnshire Fens – 2014, A5 136pp. Considers the place of the village church as a focus of art, culture and community memory at a time of diminished religious observance; with photographs by François Matarasso
• Where We Dream: WBOS and the Fine Art of Musical Theatre, – 2012, 198 by 135 mm, 92 pp.  The story of a wonderful, but also typical, amateur theatre company that has been thriving since 1937 and the West Midlands town that gives it life. With a DVD by Benjamin Wigley and photographs by Kate Jackson and François Matarasso

Other books

• Friendly Interest, Reflections on Swiss cultural exchange with Poland and Central Europe 1991-2003 2013 (160 by 110 mm, 78 pp,)
• Cultural Encounters, The Swiss Cultural Programme in SE Europe, 2013
• A Different Heartbeat, 2012
• Did it make a difference? Evaluating community-based arts and business partnerships 2001 
• Balancing Act: strategic dilemmas in cultural policy, 1999
• Making Space, Disabled People & South Asian Dance, with. Bisakha Sarker, 1994
• Regular Marvels: A Handbook for Animateurs, 1994
• The English Castle, 1993

Comedia reports

• Only Connect: Arts Touring and Rural Communities, 2004
• Vital Signs, Mapping Community Arts in Belfast, 1998     
• Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts, 1997
• Vital Signs, Mapping Community Arts in Belfast, 1998     
• Learning Development, The social impact of public libraries, 1998
• Northern Lights, The social impact of the Fèisean (Gaelic Festivals) 1996
• Defining Values, Evaluation in the Arts, 1996
• Spirit of Place, Redundant Churches as Urban Resources, 1995

Gone

All my copies of the following are now gone, but you can download them by following the links. (I might have copies again in future, but not for several months.)

Bread and Salt, Stories of Art and Migration, 2013, (A5 116pp.) Draws on the experiences of artists who have migrated to several European countries to ask questions about identity, value and culture’s claimed universalism. With images by Bill Ming, and two poems in Hindi by Mohan Rana; 116 pages.

• Available to download only

Winter Fires, Art and Agency in Old Age, 2012 (A5 80pp and 10 colour plates). Explores how the practice of art, whether professional, amateur or occasional can change the experience of ageing by strengthening our capacity for agency; with iPad portraits by Mik Godley.

• Print copies are available from the Baring Foundation; Available to download here.

Telling Stories: The arts and wellbeing in North Liverpool, 2010, A4 54pp, A report documenting community cultural programmes commissioned by Liverpool Arts Regeneration Partnership.

• Available to download only

Meanwhile an audience, quite unaware, lecture at University of Falmouth, 2008;

• Available to download only

Living Heritage, Community Development through Culture Resources, 2005. Report into a four year €2.5 million community heritage programme in Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, supported by the King Baudoin Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.

• Available to download only