A handful of frenetic days, hence the time-lapse in posting...
Day Seven was due to the workshop with the lovely Selina Thompson, but unfortunately she fell ill and was unable to come. We wish her a speedy recovery.
After talking to all the registered participants, we decided to go ahead, with a meal and a discussion and with participants bringing some small practical exercises.
So in the end 18 of us sat down around a rather dramatic dinner table, for a caribbean meal and a very animated and very worthwhile conversation - led off with with questions about what artform people saw themselves working in and how they got there (ranging from formal education to wilful rebellion), through perceptions of live art as a form and how it could be made more attractive, through to the social responsibility felt by artists from diverse backgrounds to represent their whole culture.*
The evening finished with a couple of writing exercises and a sharing of the outcomes - resulting in some very strong and very personal words and actions.
All in all it felt like a very positive exercise and consensus seemed to be that it would be worth repeating it on a semi-regular basis.
*We will be working on a fuller documentation of the evening via video and a report.