Save the date(s): What's coming up at Pot Luck?

News/July 2024

Pot Luck is a unique social club for creative people. Hosted at the Blast Theory studios in Portslade every two months and led by artist Ju Row Farr, Pot Luck events are a chance to try things out, meet new people, get inspired and find new ways to move forward.

Pot Luck is designed to build confidence, develop skills and facilitate connections. You might be looking for inspiration; changing direction; or you might be at the end of a course and thinking about what’s next. You might have a strong creative twinkle that needs attention; you might be working on a project and need something else.

All sorts of people come with all kinds of creative experiences. There are always new faces as well as regulars: we never know who will be in the room and that’s part of what makes it exciting.

What happens at Pot Luck?

Pot Luck is based on the Potlatch, a North American Indigenous communal meal or gathering where everyone brings something they can contribute to the meal or to give away.

Eating together is a central part of the evening and we encourage everyone to bring something to share which is either vegetarian or vegan. Alongside a dish, we encourage you to bring a friend or someone curious too.

There is always something to take away, connected to the theme of the evening. Often you might take away a new idea, an object, some new writing, or a potential collaborator or friend.

Hopefully, you will leave with a full belly and feel different to when you arrived.

Check out the themes and dates for our upcoming Pot Luck nights below. Don’t forget to save the date(s) and RSVP to the one/s you can attend. You can do this by emailing me at [email protected] with the one/s you can come along to. Please also let me know if you’re bringing someone with you.

We have free bus passes available to travel to Pot Luck – if you’d like one, let me know when you email me.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Pilgrimage/Walking Work

🗓️ 6-8pm, Wednesday 17 July 2024

📍 Blast Theory Studio

🎫 Free entry

Let’s take someone somewhere else… This could be through a story, a factual event, an abstract tour or of course a blend.

We will walk the streets together trying some things out to generate ideas and to lock into our surroundings – all the while thinking about the person who will come and take part in the work.

Starting promptly at Blast Theory studios we will go outside for this one and if the weather holds we will end at the beach to eat and drink at the end, discussing all the material we have made. Of course, it is England and if the weather is not on our side I will try to bring summer into the studio with cocktails, fairy lights and treats!

Project Planning, Making A Budget, Comms, Fundraising

🗓️ 6-8:30pm, Wednesday 18 September 2024

📍 Blast Theory Studio

🎫 Free entry

Ready for the start of term, after the summer, this will be an all-singing and all-dancing Pot Luck to talk through all the important things to consider for projects of all types.

The wider team in Blast Theory will share their expertise in project planning, budgeting, comms, and fundraising. They’ll deliver short sessions with practical advice you can apply to your own work. You can ask them anything and you’ll leave with useful templates and practical suggestions.

The sessions will be accessible, fun and empowering.

We will run four 30-minute sessions with a break in the middle to eat together around the table.

If you are particularly interested in any of these areas, let us know when you RSVP for numbers.

Free Building – Making Something With Our Hands Without A Plan

🗓️ 6-8pm, Wednesday 20 November 2024

📍 Blast Theory Studio

🎫 Free entry

In the middle of November, we will have a whole evening to make something on the table that didn’t exist before.

We will use whatever is available and materials that you may want to contribute, to move things around and construct. It’s a method of doing without thinking which is – of course – nearly impossible to do, but we’re going to give it a try! Some people may call it a flow state. Whatever you call it, the process can be a lot of fun and the results delightful and surprising. So, we will try it out together: eating, talking, listening to a specially made soundtrack for the night and seeing what emerges – from a ravaged book sprouting hairy wafts of paper like a monster; to a stack of objects you can imagine as a building to roam in – this literally can be anything. And I’m already looking forward to what will come out from our hands into the night.

Lots of materials, glue, tape, etc. will be waiting for you!

Going Into The New Year – The Interview As A Form

🗓️ 6-8pm, Wednesday 15 January 2025

📍 Blast Theory Studio

🎫 Free entry

After a break to relax or perhaps a time to reflect, this Pot Luck gets stuck into questions and how these can be a work in themselves.

Come along with a real or imagined person that you would want to interview or ask lots of questions of. Who are they, what would you ask, why, how, where, and then what form could this take as a work? This person might be you; someone famous; someone you once saw – it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can create something super interesting by leaning in, your way, to find a through-line. For this Pot Luck you might especially want to bring a friend so you can interview each other or tease something else out.

I will share some techniques, some starting points, and things to look at. And we will start the new year with some new fuel and some food around a table with each other. Who knows what you will leave with – certainly a few more questions I hope and a little bit of process!

Feedback, Tests, Works-In-Progress, Prototypes – What Do We Really Want To Know and What Is The Best Way To Find Out

🗓️ 6-8pm, Wednesday 12 March 2025

📍 Blast Theory Studio

🎫 Free entry

In March we are getting right under the bonnet: looking at all aspects of testing.

Testing is a very important part of making something. This Pot Luck is about how to test/try out your work and how to ask the most useful questions. I will give some examples and discussion/starting points, methods, pros and cons of different ways to do this. Come along with examples of what has worked for you (if you are happy to share) and come along to discuss and try out some new ways.

Maybe you are working on something at the moment or maybe not, it doesn’t matter…

Is this boring? Absolutely not. For me this is vital to developing better ideas, for myself, and for the audience.

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