There’s a particular kind of energy that gathers when something begins well. Not just smoothly, but meaningfully — when the tone feels set, the room attentive, and the work itself seems to open a shared space rather than simply fill it. Our opening event, Lifting the Curse, offered exactly this.

With around fifty people gathered, the evening unfolded with a sense of quiet anticipation that quickly deepened into something more immersive. The screening of Tim Shaw’s film brought us into a world shaped by ancient beliefs, ritual practices, and a persistent human desire to negotiate with forces beyond the visible. It is a work that does not explain itself too readily, but instead draws the viewer into its textures — mythic, psychological, and deeply material.

What made the evening particularly special was the insight offered into the film’s making. Hearing the “inside story” — the decisions, the encounters, the persistence behind the work — shifted the experience from one of observation to participation. It reminded us that artworks are not fixed objects but accumulations of thought, doubt, research, and lived experience.

This sense of layered experience was carried further by Dina Ipavic’s live performance of the accompanying song. There is something transformative about hearing music in the same space where its visual counterpart has just unfolded. The performance grounded the film’s more elusive qualities, giving them a bodily presence — voice, breath, and time shared with an audience.

Together, the elements of the evening created a kind of threshold moment. Lifting the Curse is, in many ways, about inherited structures — beliefs, fears, rituals — and the possibility of confronting or reconfiguring them. It felt fitting, then, that this work should open our programme, as we begin to think about the spaces between art, imagination, and the unseen.

This theme continues into our next event on 14th May, when Kate Walters will lead an exploration into Dreaming, Art, and the Shamanic Imagination. Where Lifting the Curse touched on ritual and myth as lived and enacted, this upcoming talk shifts attention inward — toward dreams as a site of artistic inquiry and transformation. Walters will explore practices for accessing these states, and the role they play in creative work.

If the opening evening asked how we inherit and engage with ancient narratives, the next invites us to consider how we generate them ourselves — through dream, intuition, and altered perception.

It’s an exciting beginning. We’re grateful to everyone who joined us, and we look forward to continuing the conversation.