Cultural Democracy in the USA

Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk with Arlene Goldbard, a writer, social activist and consultant from the USA, whose focus is the intersection of culture, politics, and spirituality. She is a long-time advocate for cultural democracy and a creator of cultural critique and new cultural policy proposals.


Episode 007     January 4, 2019
Contributors    Arlene Goldbard     |   Sophie Hope     |   Owen Kelly    

Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly talk with Arlene Goldbard, a writer, social activist and consultant from the USA, whose focus is the intersection of culture, politics, and spirituality. She is a long-time advocate for cultural democracy and a creator of cultural critique and new cultural policy proposals.

She and Don Adams are primarily responsible for British community artists adopting the phrase cultural democracy to describe their long term aims. The two of them attended the Another Standard conference in Sheffield in 1986 and gave powerful keynote presentations.

In this conversation we ask about how Arlene first came across the ideas behind cultural democracy, and about the work she has been doing across the USA, as an artist and activist.