There will be a warm-up class, plenty of time for social dancing and chatting. Refreshments (tea and coffee) will be available.

How to get involved

This event is open to beginners as well as experienced dancers from Bristol and beyond, especially LGBTQ+ dancers from all cultural backgrounds, their friends, allies and supporters. Please wear something you feel comfortable moving in.

About Bristol Equality Dance

Bristol Equality Dance was set up in 2022 by Norma Daykin, a qualified dance teacher based in Bristol who has for over 20 years offered inclusive practice for all members of the community groups including LGBTQ+ people, older people, people with disabilities and refugees. In 2022 Norma received a community award from the UK Equality Dance Council for her long services to the LGBTQ+ dance community. Jacky Logan is a well-established London DJ who cofounded the Pink Jukebox Dance Club with Ralph Schiller. In 2021 Jacky was awarded a British Empire Medal for her services to same-sex ballroom dancing.

Hosted by Just Love Hub and Newtown Network this group will provide a a safe space to allow vulnerability between women, encouraging steps towards creating and owning our own feminine energy.

The first session will include a meet-and-greet of like-minded women session planning for the future. Come and connect over hot drinks and snacks, share stories and support one another.

Sessions are for women aged 25+ from any background - just come along with an open mind and open heart.

About Just Love Hub and Newtown Network

Just Love Hub has been running since 2015 and was formed by their leader Salamà's desire to form more friendship groups with women in Bristol as there were not many present and it is is often challenging to maintain friendships as we get older and our lives get busier. Newtown Network, formed by Deborah Benjamin, have been making waves in Newtown through various events, community work and activities since 2021, their aim being to connect various people from the community and to highlight the wonderful people of Newtown.

This event is supported by Trinity free-subsided hire scheme

Activities coordinator, Stefan Boakye connects with UK-wide partners as part of the Fun Palaces project

Trinity is a key partner in Fun Palaces, a national campaign that is making arts and culture more accessible by supporting people to plan and deliver creative events in their communities.

As part of my role, Community Activities coordinator, I have connect with local residents and community groups to offer help and support so they can set up their own creative activities. This includes Ruth Harrison and her ‘Recycle City Project’ and new resident group Impact Bristol.

"I learnt that many other organisations where also exploring developing networks between organisations and we discussed ways to make this more effective"

In January we hosted an 'action research meeting' with the Fun Palace partners. These meetings are a way to collectively gather feedback, improve working practices, learn from each other and create new connections. Partner organisations are based across the UK and included the Albany Centre, The National Trust for Wales and Rotherham Council Libraries.

We began the day by introducing ourselves and checking in on what each organisation was currently focusing on. We had a fun icebreaker which involved us talking to each other about what our ‘special’ skills were.

Following this we took part in an evaluation session with Sarah Boiling and shared our progress within the program, success stories and challenges. This session was more focused on the things we liked about Fun Palaces and how we can develop these themes. This was very valuable as we all explored the ways in which the Fun Palaces message helps us all in our individual roles to talk about the importance of making arts and culture more accessible.

After this we had lunch delivered from a local Caribbean takeaway ‘Nadine’s Caribbean Cafe’ and we had another opportunity to chat and bond with each other before we went back into our final ‘Open Sessions’.

‘Open Sessions’ brought the group together to raise any topics they wished to discuss. If someone wanted to raise a topic, they would announce it in the centre of the room and then find a designated space to host the discussion.

I took part in several of these discussions and it was useful to pick up tips and hear the experiences of other partners and makers. The fact that we were encouraged to talk freely amongst ourselves meant that we covered a lot of important topics. For example, I learnt that many other organisations where also exploring developing networks between organisations and we discussed ways to make this more effective.

We finished by sharing what we had gained from the day, how we were feeling and any final thoughts. I mentioned that my involvement in discussions about building networks would be very useful in helping me to form ideas to develop a community network which will connect individuals and organisations.

The event was really positive and it was great to see so many people who were passionate about what they do and the communities that they are trying to reach, which made me feel more inspired about my role.

To find out more about the Fun Palaces campaign, how to get involved and how to create your own Fun Palace contact our Community Producer Stefan on: stefan@trinitybristol.org.uk

So put on your dancing clothing on, be entertained and join us for a fun night at Trinity!

A great and fun way to meet new people and have a chat over a drink or two, along with some great music to do some dancing and socialising.

Rhythm of the Night is every last Thursday of the month.

Disco starts at 7.00pm

Bar open - please note you have to be over 18 to buy alcoholic drinks from our bar. You will be asked for an ID, so please bring one with you. Please ensure that transport is arranged for the end of the night.

Please note that Trinity has a public pay and display car park. It applies to anyone parking at the Centre, including staff, hirers, centre users and blue badge holders. The rates start at £1 (for 1hr) and go up to £5 for 12hrs. More info about Trinity's car park can be found here

In 2022 Trinity took part in the Thriving Communities initiative, to develop a programme of creative activity in response to the increased isolation that many people - including older people and those caring for young children - experienced during and post-pandemic.

The year-long initiative, led by specialist 'arts-on-referral' practitioners, creativeShift pioneered a new model of using the arts to improve health and well-being. The pilot project helped to connect key partners in the arts, health and social care setting, to help communities rebuild and recover.

“The art helps you to manage your own feelings and learn how to cope with things. It has given us transferable skills, and I have noticed how the participants have grown in confidence”. Anita, Gentle Creative Dance

Building on our previous Moving Bristol project that explored how dance can be used in a social prescribing model, we connected creativeShift with some of Trinity's resident community groups to design a programme of activity that was subsequently delivered to service users who were referred by local health and community partners due to their health needs.

Over the last year, we have been able to utilise our unique position as a trusted community arts hub to build resilient cross-sectors partnerships, including strengthening links with community health providers Wellspring Settlement, who referred patients to our free-to-access programmes.

Social prescribing delivery in practice

creativeShift worked with Gerry's Attic - an over 55's dance group who meet regularly at Trinity - to create Gentle Creative Movement, a weekly programme designed to increase well-being and confidence for those who may be experiencing long term health issues effecting their mobility.

One Gentle Creative movement participant now volunteers at a local dementia café saying that going to sessions had “... given me the confidence to do that.”

Social prescribing specialists from creativeShift also collaborated with Bristol Children’s Centre (CBCC) to design a play-based programme for parents and carers of young children born during the pandemic to connect with their children and with each other.

These meetings are open to all residents, traders and anyone that has an interest in their local policing.

The purpose of the meetings is to offer reassurance to the community that their local neighbourhood team will still be policing the area following the impending closure of the station on Trinity Road.

How to get involved

You will not need to bring anything along to attend these meetings, and you are welcome to come along at any point. There will be information available in several languages to help explain things and reminders of ways to contact your local police force.

Meeting Times

January - Tuesday 31/01/2023 - 5 pm to 7 pm 
February - Saturday 25/02/2023 - 11 am to 1 pm 
March - Friday 31/03/2023 - 5 pm to 7 pm 
April - Wednesday - 26/04/2023 - 1 pm to 3 pm
May - Thursday 25/05/2023 - 10 am to 12 pm
June - Monday 19/06/2023 - 5 pm to 7 pm

About Avon and Somerset Police

Avon and Somerset Police as we know it today formed in 1974 from the merger of the former Somerset and Bath Constabulary with the Bristol police force and the Staple Hill division of Gloucestershire Constabulary.

Image credit: St Paul's Carnival

In partnership with St Paul’s Carnival/Trinity and David Jubb of Citizens In Power, we are exploring how to co-create a cultural strategy for the city and surrounding region with citizens.

During this research phase, funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), we invited a range of collaborators from the sector who place participation at the heart of their practice to hear from some of the best speakers working in democratic decision making right now.

Part 3: Becoming A City Of Culture

In our third blog we reflect on the thoughts and experiences of Bradford 2025 team members, May McQuade and Jack Lynch who used the Citizens’ Assembly model as part of Bradford’s successful UK City of Culture 2025 bid.

May McQuade was the Programme and Community Coordinator for Bradford 2025. It was her role to explore what they would do if they were to win, and what programming could happen during the bidding period. This involved lots of consultation work, spreading the word around the bidding and getting people on board. 

Jack Lynch worked on creating the campaign and brand for Bradford 2025. His role looked at how the City of Culture bid looked and felt, and the story they wanted it to tell. Jack spoke about being particularly keen to make something that felt truly original in Bradford, particularly with regards to how people normally spoke about the area.

The group were interested to explore what the catalyst was for this groundswell of positive engagement with the Bradford 2025 campaign. Jack shared that there was a focus on taking public opinion and universal truths about Bradford, and working them into the campaign. They found this was a way that everyone – from people in the arts sector to people in the street – could understand the aim of winning a City of Culture bid, and that this helped create a high level of engagement. The group discussed that ‘finding the city’s universal truths’ could be an important part of a City of Culture bid for Bristol.

Delving into the local authority’s involvement in Bradford 2025, May shared how the council had set up and invested in the trust then fully supported the bidding process. The decision for the bid to be separate from the council gave the team creative freedom.

There was a question posed from the group about the high number of people of Pakistani heritage living in Bradford, and how the bid was representative of this community. May spoke about several staff and steering group members being of South Asian heritage and the broad consultation events taking place in every ward of the district. May also shared that part of the bid’s focus was around improving representation in decision making roles within the arts, and supporting growth of the South Asian arts offer in Bradford. She went on to say that there are also many other Global Majority groups living in the area, and they wanted to make sure everyone was involved - which was admittedly difficult. The group spoke about Bristol’s arts sector not being fully representative of the diverse population of the city, and how there would need to be careful thought put into that during the bidding process. 

When asked what the biggest takeaways were from the process, Jack spoke about understanding that from a marketing perspective this is essentially a political campaign. May shared that, on a personal level, she felt it was important to start with a pace that makes sense with the communities you’re working with and not push too hard from the beginning – it’s a fast paced process and can easily become overwhelming.

Interested in finding out more?

• Read the blogs so far: Part 1 What is a Citizen's Assembly? and Part 2 Art, for, with, by the people
• Keep up-to-date about the project by joining our mailing list
• Read Freddie Wulf's article: Identity Capital
• Watch Trinity's take over of the Radix Big Tent
• Join in the conversation using #67MillionVoices

Sessions will take place in the Trinity Community Garden as well as inside the building and will focus on nature-based and craft activities that will explore gentle practices to improve wellbeing and to build connections with the natural world, yourself and each other.

How to get involved

Registration is via Changes Bristol,  please contact Jen from the team on growing@changesbristol.org.uk to find out more

About Changes Bristol

Changes Bristol has been providing support to those in mental distress in Greater Bristol, since 2003. People access our services in the city of Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire (BNSSG), and Bath & North East Somerset.

Changes provide support in the form of weekly support meetings across Bristol and providing learning materials for participants to take away and learn new techniques such as mindfulness and CBT. Changes also provide brefriending services, volunteering opportunities to help people gain confidence and learn new skills, as well as training opportunities.

The Lila tradition is recognised to be a manifestation of the expressive culture of the historical Gnawa. It is a rich ceremony of song, music, dance, costume and incense that takes place over the course of an entire night ending around dawn. The ritual enables participants to enter the trance state of jadba, in which they perform startling and sometimes spectacular dances.

The Gnawa begin the Lila by remembering through song and dance the Gnawa of times past, their lands of origin, the experiences of their slave ancestors, and their tales of abduction, sale, separation and loneliness, and ultimately redemption.

A feature that distinguishes Gnawa from other brotherhoods is their system of colour categories that mark the progression over the course of the night. Gnawa play the corresponding music, dress the trancers in the appropriate colours, and burn the corresponding incense. The colours must be sung in a certain order, the Lila follows a path through the night whose road is marked in the sensory realms of sound (music, song) sight (colours) smell (incense) and movement (dance).

We have a few walk up spaces available, first come first serve.

This project is funded by Arts Council England and is in partnership with Trinity Community Arts.

Mondays from 11am-1pm (School term time only)

Aid Box Community supports refugee and asylum seekers in Bristol. They create a safe space for refugee communities to socialise and exchange knowledge, skills, culture and language, whilst drinking lots of tea and laughing.

Every week we have a different activity for our wonderful women to do whilst we chat about this and that, and keep each other company! We have had mindfulness and art sessions, massage days, sewing activities, multi-cultural lunch clubs, and much more.

Tea, coffee, and light snacks are provided.

How to get involved

These sessions are targeted towards Refugee and Asylum Seeker women. You do not need to bring anything along to participate in these sessions. Children are also welcome. For more information please contact Heather from Aid Box.

The 2023 Bristol Seed Swap will have a whole new line up of speakers, more stalls, the ever popular cafe and this year there will be a kids' area again. There will not be a booking system this year and tickets will be allocated for the speakers on a first come first served basis.

Take what you need, give what you can: Bring your own seeds to exchange or give a cash donation.

What can I expect at Bristol Seed Swap?

• Seed Tables - where you can browse to choose the seeds you need
• Speakers - hear from experts on seed saving, food resilience, gardening and more
• (2023 programme here )
• Stalls - selling plants, seeds, 'green' goods and promoting organisations with a growing or ethical theme
• Food - a wonderful pop-up cafe serving fabulous drinks and cake
• Information - about local growing projects, and how to get growing
• People - lots of friendly and happy volunteers and visitors
• Free Entry and Seeds!

We want as many people as possible to grow food and to get into gardening generally. Money should be no barrier to doing so.

What do I need to bring?

Seeds - to add to the Seed Tables if you have any, these can be spare shop bought seeds or ones you have saved yourself.Friends and Neighbours - tell the gardeners in your life about the Swap, some people are just too busy growing things to look at social media - we find it hard to reach them with publicity.​

​Cash - for donations, payments can be taken through Paypal too.

Warm Clothes - you may have to queue for a while.

Volunteer at Bristol Seed Swap

If you’d like to get involved with organising Bristol Seed Swap 2023, or simply help out on the day next time, please email brisseedswapvols@gmail.com

General Enquiries

To offer seeds, enquire about a stall in 2023, suggest a collaboration, or requests a speaker, or any other enquiry email Bristolseedswap@gmail.com

The evening will celebrate The MAZI Project's achievements over the past year, and includes a special performance from singer and ambassador Charli Brix and a speech from a very special celebrity guest. All in a Wintery and candle-lit setting.

The team in the kitchen will be led by former head chef of Casamia, Summer Sharkey, and two of the aMAZIng young people MAZI Project supports. This four-course winter feast will be the dining experience in the heart of the city you've been waiting for.

80% of proceeds raised will go towards The MAZI Project and our continued effort to feed young people that are facing food poverty.

We expect to sell out so book your tickets through the link.

Come and enjoy some delicious food, support your local community, do some good!

Cover image by Jack Abbott Photography

St Pauls Carnival

In partnership with St Paul’s Carnival and David Jubb of Citizens In Power, Trinity are exploring how Bristol can co-create a cultural strategy for the city and surrounding region.

During this research phase, funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), we invited a range of collaborators from the sector who place participation at the heart of their practice to hear from some of the best speakers working in democratic decision making right now.

These focus groups have been a chance to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and expertise on co-creation, participatory democracy and how we can do things differently in the culture sector.

In a series of blogs we are documenting and sharing what we are uncovering this journey. For our first focus groups we welcomed Brett Henning, co-founder of the Sortition Foundation and Janet Vaughan, designer and co-artistic director of Talking Birds to share their experiences of creating Citizens' Assemblies.

Part 2: Art, for, with, by the people

Janet Vaughan is the co-artistic director of Talking Birds Theatre Company who hosted the UK’s first Citizens’ Assembly on Arts, Culture & Creativity as part of the 2021 Coventry City of Culture. The Assembly took place over six weeks and produced recommendations that were incorporated in the city's Cultural Strategy. We invited Janet to share their experience of using this model and what they learned during the process.

Joining us on Zoom, Janet first shared how their interest in participatory democracy came from the early day of the pandemic where a large proportion of people in the UK suddenly had time 'to do things'. During this time, Janet shared that they took part in online conferences and events by organisations including Civic Square and that this initial engagement was the spark that led to their hosting of a Citizens' Assembly.

The initial barrier to programming the Citizens' Assembly in Coventry was engaging with stakeholders to invest in the process - as Citizens' Assemblies are very expensive. However, Talking Birds, in collaboration with stakeholders, felt it was important for people, outside the cultural sector, to have a voice in creating a cultural offer.

Through David Jubb, Janet connected with the Sortition Foundation and they acted as the independent organisation who would administer, engage and select participants for the Assembly. The Sortition Foundation worked to ‘crunch’ the numbers to ensure participants reflected the demographic data that has been specified.

As with other UK Assemblies, Talking Birds paid for participants to take part and supplied people with the tech they may have needed for engaging in the process during a pandemic. They also offered 1-2-1 tech support to ensure engagement was equitable.

The group were interested in whether the Citizens' Assembly ‘made a difference’ and if the process enabled learnings that were 'surprising or unexpected'. Janet shared that, yes, firstly because conversations were had that otherwise would not have been able to happen and, secondly, because the people who took part would not normally have been able to engage with each other. Then finally, that because the Citizens' Assembly approach is tried and tested, it created real spaces for conversation, questions and ideas.

The group were then interested in how to go about choosing the provocation for discussion during the Assemblies'. Janet shared that Talking Birds set up an oversight committee to explore what their provocation would be. At the time there was a drive to ‘build back better’ and the committee, through discussions, came to an agreement that they wanted to explore the role of art and artists in this.

The final part of Janet’s talk looked at data and numbers. The Coventry project ran over six weeks, 50 people took part in the Assembly itself across six learning sessions with evidence from around 12 expert witnesses. The cost to run and engage participants was around £120k.

Janet reflected that it was brilliant to watch the participants build confidence over the project and felt the approach enabled people to feel autonomy, listened to and that their questions were valid. From these, recommendations were drafted and put to vote at the Assembly and then went through a process of refining the recommendations which where eventually submitted to the Council for consideration.

We will continue to share our findings from the research stage of our project alongside programming further focus groups and action-learning sessions.

Interested in finding out more?

• Read part 1: What is a Citizen's Assembly?
• Keep up-to-date about the project by joining our mailing list
• Read Freddie Wulf's article: Identity Capital
• Watch Trinity's take over of the Radix Big Tent
• Join in the conversation using #67MillionVoices

Community Painting Day. Photo credit: Khali Ackford

In partnership with St Paul’s Carnival and David Jubb of Citizens In Power, Trinity are exploring how we can co-create a cultural strategy for the city and surrounding region.

During this research phase funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), we invited a range of collaborators from the sector who place participation at the heart of their practice to hear from some of the best speakers working in democratic decision making right now.

These focus groups have been a chance to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and expertise on co-creation, participatory democracy and how we can do things differently in the culture sector.

In a series of blogs we are documenting and sharing what we are uncovering this journey.

Part 1: What is a Citizens' Assembly?

For the first focus group we welcomed Brett Hennig, co-founder of the Sortition Foundation. The Sortition Foundation is an organisation that believes in representative and participatory politics, with a particular focus on Citizens' Assemblies.

The purpose of these assemblies, Brett outlined, is that they bring people together from all walks of life and give the time and space for people to collectively tackle issues. It is a model, Brett shared, that Bristol itself has delivered as part of its plan for post-Covid recovery.

Citizens' Assemblies work by a three-part process of learning, discussion, and decision-making. In the learning stage, evidence is presented on the topic by ‘expert witnesses’, the group then discuss this evidence and work together to come to a consensus to create recommendations. These recommendations are then put to the vote. The recommendations that are most supported can become the official recommendations of the assembly.

Brett stressed the importance of having representation in a Citizens' Assembly, so the pool must be reflective of demographic data and, in the case of our project, cultural engagement. He shared that, unlike politics, Young People (30 and under) are represented in Citizens' Assemblies because of the nature of the selection process that reflects a city’s demographic data.

Participants of Citizens' Assemblies are selected via an independent third party - these organisations will initially contact citizens directly using a database, such as the Royal Mail’s database of every postal address in the UK. There is then a second selection of the people who respond to the invitation based on the demographic data they provide.

The group were interested in how the experts are selected - as this could be contentious. Using an example of congestion in a city, Brett explained that a Local Authority could commission an external third party to collect the evidence at hand, perhaps from an open call out. An Oversight Group for the assembly will be given the responsibility for ensuring the evidence that is presented to the assembly is balanced. Assembly members can also be part of the process of identifying contributors to the assembly. This would enable a wider pool of opinions, practically from those invested in the topic with expertise and/or lived experience.

The group wanted to understand how large a Citizens' Assembly should be. Brett shared that, in deliberative democracy, it is not a big numbers game. The key is representation. Brett shared that in Ireland, assemblies have seen numbers of up to 100 people, France had 150 in the Climate Assembly, but many local assemblies are around 40 people.

In summarising his talk, the discussion centred around how to ensure that voices are heard and amplified in Citizens' Assemblies, specifically those from Communities who may face barriers to participation. Brett shared that perhaps over-representation could be a consideration so that more communities are attending for specific areas whose voices are historically not amplified. Brett also explained that representation is not only about the citizens in the assembly but also about the voices of those who give evidence.

Interested in finding out more?

We will continue to share our findings from the research stage our project alongside programming further focus groups and action-learning sessions.

• Keep up-to-date about the project by joining our mailing list
• Read Freddie Wulf's article: Identity Capital
• Watch Trinity's take over of the Radix Big Tent
• Join in the conversation using #67MillionVoices

Fun Palaces in a UK wide organisation that supports volunteers, grassroots communities an organisations to programme events or create projects that celebrate the culture, skills and heritage of communities.

"I would love what I do to make a big difference in the world, I would love to do all kind of things like create wonderful things for people like homes for homeless people, or create wonderful animal sanctuaries. I just want to be happy with myself and make a huge difference." Ruth

We are partnering with Fun Palaces as part of thee-year project that aims to give power to communities so they can re-think, re-claim or re-purpose civic and community spaces.

As part of the project, local Newtown resident, Ruth, has been working with Trinity’s Communities Activities Coordinator to develop the ‘Recycle City Project’. The project aims to use creativity and technology to imagine a sustainable future City and hopes to include workshops across Bristol and an exhibition - most of all, Ruth wants to make a difference in the world around her.

Through the Fun Palaces partnership, we are offering free 1-2-1 support to Ruth, helping flash out ideas, apply for funding and support Ruth by attending meetings alongside her.

Ruth first started taking part in activity in the Community Garden at Trinity and remembers the sessions fondly, particularly baking using the outdoor oven and the other people who took part in the sessions. Recently, Ruth took part in The Wish List – a community arts project co-created by Newton Residents and artist Michelle Roache. She reflects that the lantern parade was ‘magic’ saying “we can all make that magic, I’m sure we can make that magic. I think that’s what I’m trying to create in my life, not just for myself, for the world”.

Fun Palaces aims to elevate everyday creativity, especially for those who may not consider themselves to be artists. Ruth feels this is beneficial and expresses this eloquently in saying "like with Grayson Perry, it’s celebrating everyone's unique, artistic, creative talent”.

The Fun Places project will continue until 2025 - click here to find out more about the project and how Trinity could support you to ignite your ideas.