Monthly Communal Lunches have been a pillar of Mansions of the Future’s programme since the project launched. In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, as a necessary precaution and commitment to the wellbeing of artists, our staff, volunteers and the wider community all upcoming Communal Lunches were postponed. In this moment we are working with commissioned artists to rethink and reimagine how the format can be interpreted, how new work can be shared and enjoyed together with audiences in a safe, virtual, domestic and necessarily personal environment.

This event will take place using Zoom, a free online video chat service. For security reasons, booking via Eventbrite is essential and a hyperlink that will take you to the event will be shared with attendees via Eventbrite email 1hr before the event start time. Bookings will close for this event on Wednesday 12 August, to ensure that materials packs can be posted out to participants in time.

The Mansions of the Future team will introduce the event and be on hand to support first time Zoom users. This event will be recorded and shared online at a later date. If you do not wish to use your camera, please select the stop video option at the bottom left hand of your screen before recording begins.

Inspired by the Derbyshire tradition of Well Dressing artist Arianne Churchman will present sites for cross-pollination and overlapping histories. These sites or portals will transport us, encouraging engagement with the ancient water and the histories of spirits that dwell within. In advance of the event Arianne will create a bespoke Well Dressing Zoom background that can be downloaded and used during the event and repurposed afterwards, as a desktop background.

Over Zoom Arianne will perform a collective instructional ritual inviting participants to construct and decorate their own ‘wells’ or vessels, using non-toxic modelling clay. If you would like to receive a free materials pack in advance of this event (for the session's workshop element) please contact the MotF team via info@mansionsofthefuture.org with your postal address after booking your onto this event.

Following the live event a pre-recorded soundtrack will be available to download by those looking to repeat the ritual or enjoy the incantation as a piece of music.

Arianne Churchman (b.1988, Suffolk) is a London based artist whose work traverses video, performance and sound. Her practice concerns British folklore, customs and beliefs, which she uses as material to create new ritual assemblages that invoke speculative futures from the past. Arianne holds an MFA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, and a BA in Fine Art from the University of Reading. Recent exhibitions and performances include Folkloric Wormhole, Xero, Kline and Coma, London; Live Event with Benedict Drew, Arianne Churchman and Potato Band, iMT Gallery, London; Fungal Mumming (in collaboration with AAS), The Intimate Space, London; Works From the Hallucinated Archive, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham; The Art of Magic, The Horse Hospital, London; HORSE-PLAY, Nottingham Castle, Nottingham. Arianne has twice been an artist in residence at Metal, Peterborough, first for Metal Harvest and secondly in collaboration with Chloe Langlois for the Arts Council funded project New Henge Heritage. She frequently releases sound works and collaborates with the record label the Folklore Tapes and her sound works have been played on BBC Radio 3, NTS and Resonance FM. She often collaborates with other artists and musicians including Chloe Langlois, Sharron Kraus and AAS.

This project is part of Mansions of the Future’s Lincoln Live programme March – November 2020 (Season extended in response to COVID-19). Departing from Lincoln’s rich entertainment and theatre history, Lincoln Live features new commissions which exist at the intersections of disciplinary boundaries. The season is a celebration of performative ventures that stand resolutely marginal to both the history of English theatre and the often exclusive, disciplinary rhetoric of contemporary performance art.