This series of workshops will invite local parents and children to The Showroom for a focused project making commemorative hand built ceramic mugs. Over the week participants will be led through the process of making a mug using a slab template that Fiona has been developing in recent months for a project in Glasgow. In the pauses where the clay is drying or firing, Fiona will share her research and thinking around the histories and possibilities for political and social narratives on functional pottery, and there will be open dialogue and exchange as participants develop ideas for their own mug.

On Wednesday 5 July planned is an evening discussion open to all local residents with an interest in sewing crafts. This gathering seeks to connect makers, and to initiate a discussion around whether there is an interest in working together on future projects.

Both the mug making workshop and the sewers evening seek to initiate conversations about whether a sort of loose co-op could start to form over the course of a couple of years that facilitates a space for shared making, connectedness, and financial gain for members of the Church Street community. Could The Showroom expand its role as a cultural and artistic centre into a temporary support structure for a developing series of co-ops as participants seek to upskill and establish themselves? Would a goal to collectively work towards an exhibition-as-shop event in about two years’ time be a productive framework to gather momentum towards a more self-sustaining network?