Minutes from last night 11/10/2015 Thirsty Scholar Penryn

11/10/2015 Thirsty Scholar Penryn minutes.

• Annemarie Bala from Hands Up Penryn attended – ‘The organisers of the Hands Up Penryn project are aiming to engage the public in thinking and talking about life in Penryn, and hope to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the local community.’ - https://www.facebook.com/HandsUpPenryn
Helen Moore, Adam Russel, Johnathan Williams and Jeanette Andersen were also present; all of which (including Anne) are artists living in Penryn and Falmouth interested in the event.

• Cornwall has joined in with The Antiuniversity late on in the overall process. – London has been visable as an event for a while. We spoke about publicising the event, and being more visable as a specific Cornish branch. It might be useful to have another meeting in the future to further discuss publicity specifically for the Cornish event. – Gorilla advertising was mentioned.

• Cornwall will not have a specific website but will be integrated into the current London website. It’s really useful for us to join forces with London due to the fact they already have spread the word about The Antiuniversity and as they can advertise our events. But there does seem a need to define the Cornish branch. People looking at the London website will probably be based mainly in London. If we had a facebook page we could cross post with the London facebook page and send out calls for Submissions specifically for Cornwall. There is currently a lack of definition of a separate Cornish event. A facebook page would also allow us to post on relevant facebook pages in the local area, allowing us to raise awareness locally. Facebook cannot be ignored as an inclusive tool to help us advertise the event. Also a possible blog was mentioned.

• A Call for Artists is needed. But it was felt we needed to keep in tradition with the original Antiuniversity; it will be less curate + evaluate, and mainly about raising awareness. It is a ‘free flowing’ process, everything is welcome inless it’s deemed offensive.

• Events spaces. We discussed places to hold events: CAST, Gristmill, St Gluvias Hall, Fish Factory, Howl, Melting Pot, krowji, and Back Lane West. Please feel free to add more ideas below.

• It was mentioned that Adam had spoken to a few people who were worried that this may become too specific to Penryn. We agreed that we didn’t want this to happen but as (the ones of us there) were Penryn and Falmouth based we agreed it made the most sense for some of us to use our connections and knowledge to work within our local community. But we didn’t want this to become specific to Penryn and we wanted to support and encourage events to happen across Cornwall. It was also mentioned that unlike London, Cornwall’s geography poses a challenge and being inclusive hinges on a strong network and communication online. Loomio would be a great space to share knowledge of possible events.

• Further to the above point Adam also mentioned that Penryn/Falmouth were in close proximity to the local University and it had been mentioned to him that people had expressed wanting to distance the event from the University specifically; to show the events taking place as alternatives rather than as direct (negative) attack on the University. The name of the event was also brought up. Rather than being Anti anything, showcasing an alternative way of doing things was the general message.

• Looking at the newspaper that was given to me by the London group we looked at previous events held by the original Antiuniversity in the 60’s to gather inspiration for alternative ways of educating. Education taking place in unusual places not bound to institutional buildings or structures was highlighted. Jacob Woods – learning through doing was mentioned and events being held anywhere including park benches. A version of the newspaper is avalible online as a PDF here: http://files.antihistory.org/AntiTabloid.pdf

• Further to this a pub crawl held by ‘Spacex’ in Exeter was brought up. - http://spacex.org.uk/events/drink-think-11-september/ We discussed having a similar event. A workshop pub crawl was mentioned, which extended out of the pub aswell and became more of a trail. It was mentioned that pubs are very good levellers and inclusive to the community but that not everyone is a fan.

• Groups/people to contact were mentioned, this included WANK – Women's Art Network Kernow, Amnesty International, Sketch House, ISA, Banned Book Club, Source FM, Penryn Picture House, and Olive Branch Penryn. Please feel free to add more ideas below.

• Framing the event within its historical context of the original event in the 60’s. This is fundamentally an event about our heritage and framing its relevance within the current political climate. Helen mentioned making a zine to accompany the event with historical information inside about the Antiuniversity alongside information about events happening.

• Other alt schools were mentioned including the experimental Beacon Hill School which Bertrand Russell founded with Dora Black in 1927.

• Diploma disease + meritocracy was mentioned briefly from the Sociology dictionary Helen brought along.

• Penryn needs to start its own Space Mission.

• As I (Helen) brought up having a facebook page it was assumed I might take it on. I was wondering if the guys currently working on the website would prefer to do this. If not I’m happy to take it on board.