Jo Gibson and Sophie Hope begin a new series examining the history of social practice programmes and projects at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Echoes and the Unsaid | Episode 01

January 23 | 2026

Jo Gibson | Sophie Hope

COMMENTARY

REFERENCES

More about Sophie Hope’s work

Today A Culture of Possibility celebrates its fifth anniversary with an in-depth discussion with Griselda Goldsbrough about arts in hospitals.

A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 60

Arlene Goldbard | Griselda Goldsbrough | François Matarasso

On episode 60 of A Culture of Possibility co-hosts Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk with Griselda Goldsbrough, Art and Design Development Manager of the National Arts in Hospitals Network, “a resource for arts managers in hospitals to champion hospital arts across the UK, supporting recovery and wellbeing.”

The stories she tells about working with patients, staff, and others will inspire you!  

Griselda on LinkedIn

The first in a new Miaaw series, in which we introduce and showcase other podcasts. In this episode the Irene Taylor Trust present Solidarity Tracks, a podcast about working with music in prisons.

PARALLEL STREAMS | EPISODE 01

JANUARY 9 | 2026

Sophie Hope | Sara Lee

Sara has led the trust’s music work ever since.

Sophie Hope recently met Sara Lee, and discovered that the Trust has produced a series of podcasts that describe work that fits directly into our areas of interest. Rather than interviewing Sara, Sophie decided to ask if we could republish one of their podcasts.

This has become the first in a new Miaaw series in which we invite you to listen to other podcasts we think you might enjoy; podcasts that complement, and in some cases extend, the range of actions and works we cover.

Irene Taylor Trust Youtube channel

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Irene Taylor Trust

Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received to her paper Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience, and what she hopes happens next.

January 2nd | 2026

Sophie Hope | Su Jones | Owen Kelly

Last summer Su Jones finished writing Artists' lives: ecologies for resilience, a report formed around case studies of 14 visual artists from three English regions. She had been working on it for the last two years.

In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk to Su Jones about the reactions she has received, and her feelings about them. She discusses the position of an independent researcher and the influence she has, or doesn’t have. She talks about the precarious position that visual artists occupy in a country in which increasing numbers of people occupy precarious positions.

Should artists receive a basic incomes, as they have in Irish experiments, or does that simply amount to special pleading? Would a better proposal involve everyone receiving a universal basic income which artists can use to enable them to practice as artists, golfers can use to practice golf, and chess players can use to practice chess?

Su Jones’ writings at Arts Professional

Su Jones’ article at Arts Professional (paywall)

Su Jones’ article at Arts Monthly (paywall)

Ireland: basic income for artists

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about redemption: : the understanding that we can learn from experience and choose to realign some aspect of our lives to our deepest values.

How much do people believe positive change is possible? How much are people’s ideas of possibility constrained by a certainty that our pasts over-determine our future?

DECEMBER 9 | SERIES 2025

STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 59

Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso

On episode 59 of A Culture of Possibility, co-hosts Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk about redemption: the understanding that we can learn from experience and choose to realign some aspect of our lives to our deepest values. We were moved to explore this by the prevalence of “cancel culture” in the US and to an extent, the UK. 

Once a phenomenon of the left, now strongly influential on the right, people are singled out and vilified for things they said or did decades earlier, or they become targets of persistent, angry campaigns aimed at shaming or ostracizing them for using objectionable language or disagreeing with those in power. 

Core to community-based arts is the idea that when people speak for themselves, representing their truths, they may influence others to listen deeply and reach a more loving or just understanding. 

These days, how much do people believe positive change is possible? How much are people’s ideas of possibility constrained by certainty that our pasts over-determine our futures? 

We support freedom of expression and believe in redemption. Can people like us influence cultures that don’t? 

Shadow World: anatomy of a cancellation

When Arlene Goldbard is not being a cultural activist or a consultant, she paints. When she is not painting she writes. She writes essays and novels. Her latest novel The Intercessor has just come out.

Owen Kelly talks to Arlene about how this specific burst of writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve.

STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 81

Arlene Goldbard | Owen Kelly

The novel offers a linked series of short stories, each foregrounding one character from a group whose stories eventually interlock. All of the characters have political, social or spiritual issues which come to seem less like categories than like different coloured lenses through which we can approach the world.

The novel explores the Jewish Renewal movement, among other themes, without wanting its audience limited to Jews or even less to Jews with an interest in the Jewish Renewal movement.

Arlene explains how this specific writing began, how the novel grew from the initial writing, and what she hopes the published book might achieve. 

Arlene’s website 

Arlene Goldbard: Clarity (2004) 

Arlene Goldbard: The Wave (2013)

Arlene Goldbard: The Intercessor (2025)

Jewish Renewal, described on Wikipedia 

Adin Steinsaltz: The Thirteen Petalled Rose

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Laura Raicovich about Fall of Freedom, which begins on the day this podcast drops.

STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 58

Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso | Laura Raicovich

Artists and organizations are invited to participate by hosting public events of any size. We’ll talk about the organizers’ hopes and their sense of why and how art can resist authoritarianism.

Since this podcast goes out on November 21, it could not be timelier. Listen to the podcast, go to miaaw.net to get the links, and then look and see what is going on where you are! 

Download the Fall of Freedom Toolkit

This month Owen Kelly looks at some of the deeper meanings of Katie Lam’s recent remarks on cultural coherence.

NOVEMBER 7 | SERIES 2025

STREAM Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | EPISODE 80

Owen Kelly

What do people mean by cultural coherence? Should we regard the idea as dog-whistle politics, or should we see it as a useful idea we need to claim for ourselves, before it gets claimed by those who would whistle to dogs…

Tali Fraser: The Tories and the search for cultural coherence on ConservativeHome

The Sustainability Directory

In this episode we explore Faircamp again, trying to find something to celebrate halloween. Then we take a peep at what we can find at Tribe of Noise. 

STREAM Friday Number Five | EPISODE 19

Owen Kelly

Since today is Halloween we also try to find some suitable music, fail, and see what we can find at Tribe of Noise instead. 

The Faircamp webring FAQ

Johann Bourquenez: Diminished Epicness & more

Blix Byrd, including Skinning a Tiger

Voodoo Economics, the EP

Nightmother: The Beach Boys In My Room

A Companion of Owls: Sketches for Aural Ataraxia

Ruby Louise Rose: projects, downloads, works in progress

Helen Bell at Faircamp

Helen Bell at Bandcamp

Helen Bell: Molecule

Olive: Halloween Party v2.0 at Tribe of Noise

Rob Dell Music: I do believe in Christmas at Tribe of Noise

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Betsy Damon whose work with water has had a healing impact across the globe. She talks about her work from early projects in China to her current undertakings.

STREAM A CULTURE OF POSSIBILITY | EPISODE 57

Betsy Damon | Arlene Goldbard | François Matarasso

In 1991 Damon founded Keepers of the Waters,[23] a nonprofit organization that serves as an international community to encourage "art, science and community projects for the understanding and remediation of living water systems." The nonprofit is run with a collaborative approach and was started with the support of the Hubert Humphrey Institute.

In 2006, Damon, alongside a group of artists, scientists, and funders, met in Vancouver and created a summary report for UNESCO titled Art in Ecology – A Think Tank on Arts and Sustainability. UNESCO had commissioned a report in advance of this meeting titled Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoART Practice, of which the meeting and summary report were a result.

She is the author of Water Talks: Empowering Communities to Know, Restore, and Preserve their Waters.

On episode 57 of A Culture of Possibility, Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview Betsy Damon. 

Her work with water has had a healing impact across the globe and in this fascinating episode, she talks about her early projects in China and the work she’s undertaking now. 

She also shares excellent advice for others who want to help.  

Betsy Damon’s website

Betsy Damon’s CV

Betsy Damon in Wikipedia