The Hospitality of Bristol Project started in February 2015. It is a collaborative project between the University of Bristol and community organisations, including BHN, Dignity for Asylum Seekers and the Barton Hill Walled Garden.
The nature of the project is quite explorative, for us is a way to find out what makes good hospitality and how we can improve the network in terms of it welcome, while for the university researchers is a way to find out more about community driven research projects and what hospitality means in multi-cultural settings.
As a group we set up to have 5 workshops which we call ‘Tables’ to explore what it means to be welcome and different expressions of hospitality through art. On this sessions we were able to do some storytelling, drama and sculpture. The workshops have been well attended in general. Workshop to workshop the group varies, but there is a core group of people who have attended several workshops which allows us to have some continuity in the discussions and topics.
We are learning how to be a community through this workshops, we all work towards creating a welcoming space through companionship, art and of course, food. Food has been an important element of the project, we have been able to share over meals, some of which have been prepared by BHN’s social enterprise crew.
We are currently preparing a weekend away in late September to plan the next stage of the project until next February. We foresee making something we can share with the world, like a booklet, with what we have created collectively, and having some sort of celebration to launch it, but all these ideas are to be decided yet by the group.
If you would like to find out more about the project email Tim or Silvia on hospitalityofbristol2015@gmail.com.