Creative Conversation 2025
A Gathering for Culture in Plymouth
The Creative Conversation was a collaboration between the National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) in Plymouth intended to expand the cultural dialogue in city.
The event began with an invitation letter from Hannah Harris, the CEO of Plymouth Culture, sent to the cultural community in Plymouth to address the pressing question:
What are we going to do about culture in Plymouth?
65 artists, creatives, cultural organisations, and others responded to the invitation by coming together at the Market Hall, on March 27, for a “Creative Conversation”.
The conversation was facilitated by Improbable, a theatre company who specialises in using the Open Space Technology (OST). OST is a straightforward method that allows groups to think, collaborate, and take action collectively on shared issues. There is no set agenda and participants decide what to discuss prompted by a question. You can learn more about Improbable and Open Space here.
At the “opening circle,” participants were invited to shape the day's agenda by proposing discussion sessions that reflect themes connected to the question that resonated with them. Topics ranged from “How to emphasise the importance of grassroot” to “Climate emergency” to “Sustainable project work for freelancers?” among others that you can see on the full report bellow.
Creative Reports
Three creatives were commissioned to document the event and discussions through their creative lenses. They were: poet Matt Harvey, illustrator Sam Holland and photographer Dom Moore.
Poem
You can read Matt's poem about the day below, and we strongly recommend listening to his reading as well.
Livescribe
Below is the live scribe Sam Holland created from the day. You can see the illustrations of individual sessions within the full report
Images
You can explore additional moments of the day captured by Dom Moore in images below and throughout the report
Note: The National Portfolio Organisations in Plymouth in 2025 were: Plymouth Culture, Real Ideas Organisation, The Box, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Barbican Theatre Plymouth, KARST, Literature Works, and Beyond Face.
