what's on
what's on
Collaborative Vocal Improv - Drop-in Summer Sessions
A journey into voice, nature based play and collective creativity
After the success of our experimental lab series we are now taking our vocal improvisation sessions outside - to Loveland!
These sessions are a playful and embodied space to explore your voice through movement, improvisation, and collaborative sound-making.
We'll be exploring our connection to the land, voicing to and with nature; singing together in response to the weather, plants, animals and insects around us. We'll be experimenting with sound making, creating music together, harmony, rhythm and honing our skills of vocal improvisation.
The After Sessions with Hettie Judah: The Convivial x Art Centre Penryn
The Convivial X Art Centre Penryn are delighted to be hosting The After Sessions with the wonderful Hettie Judah.
These ultra-local events for artists are happening around the country with writer, curator and broadcaster Hettie Judah to coincide with the publication of her new book How to Enter the Art World…after a late start, a first career, illness, raising children, a crisis of confidence, leaving it in disgust…
Choose a morning session at Art Centre Penryn or an afternoon session at The Convivial, depending on your diary. Lunch included either way!
Gathering: Earth Write #2
An ecosystem of stories, from the end of the world. Exploring and discussing nature, mind and the spaces between.
Earth Write is a platform for writers of any ability, experience or confidence to showcase, discuss and develop their work, and explore ideas.
The theme is centered around ecology, mind and now. Psychology, nature and navigating an uncertain future. What does it mean, how does it feel - to live the human experience in this time of crisis, and wonder?
THE GRAMMARSOW PRESENTS: Ellen Renton & Ceda Parkinson
Cornwall Poetry Library x The Convivial: A poetry reading
The Grammarsow has brought Scottish poetry to Cornwall in the footsteps of WS Graham since 2018.
This evening we welcome Edinburgh poet Ellen Renton who will read alongside Falmouth poet Ceda Parkinson.
Gathering: Quiet Pen Mornings
Step into a calm, quietly luminous space where writers of all kinds gather to create side by side. Whether you’re shaping a poem, drafting a novel, developing a research article, revising a thesis chapter, or simply following a thread of thought across the page, you are warmly invited.
Each session begins with the offering of an optional writing prompt; a small spark to light the way, or to take you on a new path, though you’re equally free to simply journey deeper into your own work-in-progress, in any genre or form.
Evening talk: On Sacred Hunger: Ritual Pleasure for Embodiment and Resistance
What becomes possible personally, collectively and politically when pleasure is treated as a sacred and transgressive practice? Can embodied eroticism inform the ways in which we face the world we live in, and enlarge our lives with purpose and joy too?
Drawing on their practice as a somatic coach, bodyworker and occultist, Ellie Howell will invite us into a conversation about body sovereignty, ritual, desire and resistance. This talk is warmly open to all, including the spiritually curious, existing witchcraft practitioners, those exploring their bodies for healing and aliveness and everyone in between. This talk isn’t aimed at titillation, rather thinking about agency and pleasure: where we can find it, and how to cultivate it.
The Convivial AGM
On Saturday 18th July 2026, 10-2.30pm, The Convivial will hold its first Annual General Meeting. This is an opportunity to hear more about what The Convivial wants to do going forward, feed in your hopes and dreams for the space and, if you wish, get more involved with the organising.
Whether you are a regular at The Convivial, a curious onlooker, a facilitator or user of the space, you are most welcome to come along and hear more about what’s in store.
Story Carriers: 5 weeks of traditional oral storytelling in community — Sam Crosby & Sophie Craven
Communities have always told and retold stories. The stories gather weight, texture, and richness. They lay out maps of human experience, hold practiced wisdom from generations of experience and remind us how to love the places in which we live. We’ve lost touch with the practice of storytelling. And in turn, we’ve lost touch with a vital aspect of ourselves. If that sounds grandiose, it’s only because we’ve got work to do in the modern era.
Sam Crosby and Sophie Craven invite you to an oral storytelling group. We will be gathering a group of souls to find out what might happen if we show up regularly, in community, to tell stories in the old ways – with devotional attention to process over perfection, memory, imagination and place…
Workshop: Moving grief
With more space for tending and nurturing our grief, we increase our capacity for joy, self-compassion and compassion for others.
This beautiful workshop with grief tender Sam Lawrence will include some guided meditation, gentle movement based warm ups/embodiment practices, some grief tending rituals, and the opportunity to express, share and witness grief in a safe and supportive context, with time for soothing and integration…
Gathering: Quiet Pen Mornings
Step into a calm, quietly luminous space where writers of all kinds gather to create side by side. Whether you’re shaping a poem, drafting a novel, developing a research article, revising a thesis chapter, or simply following a thread of thought across the page, you are warmly invited.
Each session begins with the offering of an optional writing prompt; a small spark to light the way, or to take you on a new path, though you’re equally free to simply journey deeper into your own work-in-progress, in any genre or form.
Community qi-gong
A 60 min class with Kasia Murfet to wake up your body, mind and spirit.
Sliding Scale available £1-£15
Gathering: Earth Write
An ecosystem of stories, from the end of the world. Exploring and discussing nature, mind and the spaces between.
Earth Write is a platform for writers of any ability, experience or confidence to showcase, discuss and develop their work, and explore ideas.
The theme is centered around ecology, mind and now. Psychology, nature and navigating an uncertain future. What does it mean, how does it feel - to live the human experience in this time of crisis, and wonder?
Evening talk: Speculative fiction x Mimi Lawrence / Chloe Bonfield / Maria Christoforidi
An evening of short stories from three local artists interspersed with sound and food… Feed your ears, soul and belly xxx
Evening talk: Death & the Maiden x Henrietta Heron
What a time we live in when death, an intrinsic part of life, is still so feared and denied. When, as a largely secular society, we lack a coherent narrative around death and what happens after, we risk finding ourselves adrift on unstable ground when faced with mortality.
In this talk for The Convivial, Henrietta will invite us to enter into an enquiry around mortality and what lies beyond…
Gathering: Quiet Pen Mornings
Step into a calm, quietly luminous space where writers of all kinds gather to create side by side. Whether you’re shaping a poem, drafting a novel, developing a research article, revising a thesis chapter, or simply following a thread of thought across the page, you are warmly invited.
Each session begins with the offering of an optional writing prompt; a small spark to light the way, or to take you on a new path, though you’re equally free to simply journey deeper into your own work-in-progress, in any genre or form.
Gathering: Herbie Hopkins LIVE! with Friends
Come to The Convivial for an intimate evening of magical music and dance, featuring performances from a host of varied artists from across Cornwall! Enjoy a wild weave of visceral improvisation, spectral songwriting, and darkly dazzling dance…
Community qi-gong
A 60 min class with Kasia Murfet to wake up your body, mind and spirit.
Sliding Scale available £1-£15
Longer course: Poetics of place
Join writer, artist and facilitator Sophie Craven for a four-week long intensive exploration into the poetics of place. Drawing on thinkers such as Bayo Akomolafe, Sophie Strand, Robert McFarlane, Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti and others, we will thread theory into practice with a variety of exercises, discussions and makings.
Essentially, we will co-develop an inquiry into what it means to become intertwined and entangled with the landscape around us over the course of four in-person gatherings.
Evening talk: Joy as a Radical Form of Resistance and Resilience
We live in a difficult time, full of heavy news and heartbreak, which makes it increasingly challenging not to fall into despair and hopelessness. In those moments, experiencing joy can bring a lot of guilt, too, because it feels like a distraction from injustice and a betrayal of those who are suffering. But what if the openness to joy is a necessary act of resisting a system that is designed to exhaust us, so we disengage completely from the fight for a more just world for all?
In this beautiful evening talk with The Convivial, Rada Pandeva invites us to join an exploration of joy as a radical form of resistance in the face of extractive systems and burnout culture.
Yoga for Charity: A 5-week course
Yoga for Charity is a series of five classes offered by Ida Asadi to raise money for free-them-now, a charity which helps political prisoners and jailed workers in Iran, as well as those forced to flee the country.
The focus of these classes will be around gentle movements with long holds, and some qi-gong and breathwork included. Held in the beautiful and cosy space of The Convivial…
Gathering: Half-day rest retreat
What would it feel like to really slow down in the speed-obsessed culture?
How might it feel in your body to untangle worth from doing?
Resting together creates spaces for imagination, clarity and possibility but this is not why we rest. Radical rest is a practice of rest as a deliberate and countercultural act. We are resting not to reward ourselves, not as a collapse, or escape– but as reclamation. Radical rest is remembering that our worth is not earned through exhaustion. Rest is a birthright.
Join Kasia Murfet & Sophie Craven for a half-day retreat.
A CONVIVIAL SPRING SOIRÉE
A Springtime party to celebrate a year of The Convivial!
There will be an unveiling of a new mural in the space by artist Phoebe Deeprose, a cocktail bar, a firepit, music, and tons of fun mocktails, cocktails and bubbly. There will also be a chance to engage with some of the work going on behind the scenes to develop The Convivial's ethos and aims...
But mostly, a chance to gather, be together and bring in another year of love, community and conviviality.
All donations received will go towards ongoing and ever-increasing audacity and liveliness in the space.
Workshop: MARE #2 - Tentative Entanglements with Oddkin
Seekers are invited to engage deeper with other than human ecologies as we focus on real time phenomenology in this day-long workshop with artist Geraldine Hudson of Conjuring Creativity, spending more time outside, working with wild clay and artistic texts as conduits to connect with the oddkin whose home we share.
This is the second in a series of workshops and eventual longer course using an alternative art school model, aiming to promote theoretical discussion and application of ideas which have been historically suppressed or sidelined in critical academic environments…
Gathering: An evening of myth — Invocations for longer days
Come to The Convivial for an evening of ancient mythology and reflection to celebrate the turn towards Spring on Easter weekend...
After a beautiful first gathering for Imbolc in February, Sam Crosby of Recalling Fire returns for another evening of storytelling. Come explore the turning points in your life through the lens of mythic meaning-making. Lean into longer days with a strong dose of remembering, sharing and food.
Gathering: Quiet Pen Mornings
Step into a calm, quietly luminous space where writers of all kinds gather to create side by side. Whether you’re shaping a poem, drafting a novel, developing a research article, revising a thesis chapter, or simply following a thread of thought across the page, you are warmly invited.
Each session begins with the offering of an optional writing prompt; a small spark to light the way, or to take you on a new path, though you’re equally free to simply journey deeper into your own work-in-progress, in any genre or form.
Community qi-gong
A 60 min class with Kasia Murfet to wake up your body, mind and spirit.
Sliding Scale available £1-£15
Workshop: Queering land and Lyonesse
Collaborators Jaime Lock, Chloe Christian and Ellie Roser invite you to join their workshop Queering land and Lyonesse.
In a gentle, 2 hour session of writing, sound-making and group discussion tasks, we will make creative connections between queer rurality, ancient landscape and the story of Lyonesse- a lost land swept under the sea between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly. This workshop is part of a series across Cornwall which are helping to shape the development of a new performance project- How Big, This Big- which asks us to imagine queer bodies holding up ancient stones, as part of soil and in the waves…
Workshop: Patterns of place - Decoration, adornment and collective place-making
Why have humans always adorned the spaces they love? What is decorative art and why do we love it? How is the world around us already patterned? And how might we bring our love of the place in which we live to adorn the walls of The Convivial?
Join artist Phoebe Deeprose and The Convivial host Sophie Craven for a day of collecting patterns from in and around Penryn for incorporation into a mural for the walls of The Convivial’s learning space...
An Ostara ritual for Spring Equinox
The world is quickening, the Spring Equinox approaches, winter has come to its final lingering moments. Come and gather with practising witch Andi Searle to celebrate this great balance where the scales are tipping away from dark and towards light…
Evening talk: The Art of Your Heart x Hilary Thorn
If our emotions are held in the body and the body is wiser than the mind, where does our truth lie? Where is our deep wise self? In this unusual and exciting 'talk' from artist, acupuncturist and focusing practitioner Hilary Thorn, we will explore a practice of talking without talking. Using the simple tools of paper and pastels, we will see what happens when we ask questions of our heart and let the body lead us in response…
Gathering: Quiet Pen Mornings
Step into a calm, quietly luminous space where writers of all kinds gather to create side by side. Whether you’re shaping a poem, drafting a novel, developing a research article, revising a thesis chapter, or simply following a thread of thought across the page, you are warmly invited.
Each session begins with the offering of an optional writing prompt; a small spark to light the way, or to take you on a new path, though you’re equally free to simply journey deeper into your own work-in-progress, in any genre or form.
Community qi-gong
A 60 min class with Kasia Murfet to wake up your body, mind and spirit.
Evening talk: skein x Tom Hirons & Rozi Hilton
For this magnificent session of The Convivial, storyteller and writer Tom Hirons and artist Rozi Hilton offer their experiential project, skein. skein is a playful community-coherence tool and experimental art form in which players contribute to a holographic story-matrix…
RAD-ED: A series of lectures by community, for community
The inimitable Falmouth Trans Collective bring an afternoon of nutritious lectures to our doors to mark and celebrate LGBTQ+ history month! Come on in and cosy up with us to share & celebrate community and knowledge. And tea.
Drop in, cash donations welcome!
Evening talk: Celebrating adult play as a remedy for burnout
For this session of The Convivial, Journey to Play founder Meg Fry will explore how burnout creates barriers to play for adults, as well as how we might be able to bring more play into our day to day lives as a radical act for collective flourishing.
For Meg, the challenge is not simply to encourage adults to play - which places the onus on the individual without recognising the systemic issues surrounding burnout in our culture - but rather to create the conditions (physiological and relational) to make it accessible…
Nervous system ecology: A 4-week breathwork course
A four-week course with breathwork facilitator Charlie Cheeseman to deepen relationship with the breath as an inner resource, and to begin developing new baselines for the nervous system through regulation and capacity building.
We'll explore the numinous qualities of the breath, and deepen awareness of the body as a living ecology nested in wider ecologies and nervous systems, always co-regulating…
Frankie Fleur Valentine's Show
Join Frankie Fleur and friends for an afternoon of music, art, self-love and sisterhood in the heart of Penryn. 💗
An afternoon of cozy romance, dazzling original music and warm community. There will be cake, candles, flowers and fizz and some lovely live sounds. There will also be art for sale.🌷⭐️
Come wine and dine yourself + pals this Valentine’s.
Gathering: Quiet Pen Mornings
Step into a calm, quietly luminous space where writers of all kinds gather to create side by side. Whether you’re shaping a poem, drafting a novel, developing a research article, revising a thesis chapter, or simply following a thread of thought across the page, you are warmly invited.
Each session begins with the offering of an optional writing prompt; a small spark to light the way, or to take you on a new path, though you’re equally free to simply journey deeper into your own work-in-progress, in any genre or form.
Community qi-gong
60 min class to wake up your body, mind and spirit with Kasia Murfet.
Sliding Scale available £1-£15