Hestia’s Coming Out Party
On View: 18th–19th November 2023
Opening hours: 10am–10pm Sat 18th Nov and 11am–8pm Sun 19th Nov
Hestia Hestia's Coming Out Party
Hestia is a new queer-led DIY creative community in Cambridge. We aim to make spaces which enable people to nurture their skills, showcase their creativity, and feel at home.
We hope you can join us for our first festival — our Coming Out Party!
Across the weekend the free and family-friendly festival will feature workshops, performances, music, art, installations, stalls and talks.
Exhibiting artists and groups include Ahmad Al-Bazz, Dots Not Feathers, Mrs Fubbs’ Parlour, Nadia Koo, Nat and Tiger, Gideon Pain, Pickled Roots, and Daniela Solís.
Performing artists and groups include Jill Eastland, Zareen Taj, Justa Knight, Cardamommy and Whore D’oeuvre.
Discussion: Making Room in Cambridge: Visions for Inclusive Cultural Spaces (Sun 1:30–2:30pm). With local residents passionate about building community spaces in Cambridge: Rosie Cooper (Director, Wysing Arts Centre), Jo Bunkle (Rebel Rebel; Cambridge Pride), Jill Eastland (activist artist), Peach (from the Lockon).
Questions we will discuss include: what are the challenges in negotiating different agendas for spaces in Cambridge? What kind of spaces are needed, and what should be the priorities? How do we use creativity and cultural exchange to develop a caring/safe community space? All welcome to join the discussion
Event Info
Accessibility
Quip & Curiosity is located in a set of older buildings which have limited accessibility including narrow public entrances and internal doorways.
Read the full accessibility statement for Hestia’s Coming Out Party.
Alcohol on site
Hestia’s Coming Out Party will be an alcohol-free space at Quip & Curiosity from 10am–5pm on Saturday and all of Sunday.
For the Open Mic session Sat 3–5pm offsite at the Salisbury Arms, the pub will be serving alcohol as usual.
Please see Hestia’s instagram @hestia.cambridge for more details and updates.
Hestia’s Coming Out Party is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Astro-Zenica
Workshops
- How can we respond creatively to the genocide (Sat 11.30am–1.30pm)
Creative workshop and discussion on ongoing genocide in Palestine, facilitated by Jill Eastland - Drag and Clowning Workshop with Astro-Zenica (Sat 1.30pm–4:00pm)
Embrace the absurd with radical performance artist and drag clown Astro-Zenica. (Ages 16+) SOLD OUT - Squatting 101 Workshop with The Lockon (Sat, 6:30pm–7:30pm)
- Family-Friendly Life Drawing with Tae Ateh (Sun, 11:00am–12:00pm) SOLD OUT
Learn to capture the life around you, facilitated by artist Tae Ateh - Music Making for Non-Musicians (Sun, 12:00pm–1:00pm)
Family-friendly music making. Instruments provided.
- Mrs Fubbs’ Parlour (Sun 2:30–4:30pm) — no booking needed
Performative drop in workshop in which participants have the opportunity to dress in a variety of body suits, accessorise with genitalia, be photographed and enter into informal discussion about capitalism’s commodification of our bodies and how this commodification impacts our relationship with our own and each other’s bodies. Refreshments will be served. - Food Solidarity Workshop with The Lockon (Sun, 4.30pm–5.30pm)
Interactive workshop exploring food solidarity as a basepoint for radical community organising with Scally, Community Organiser and co-founder of both Cambridge Community Kitchen and Soup 4 My Family - Movement Workshop with Azara Meghie (Sun, 6:00pm-7:00pm) SOLD OUT
Reconnect with your body with award-winning dancer, Azara to a backdrop of modular synths - Modular Synth Workshop with Rayne Gel (Sun, 7:00pm–8:00pm) SOLD OUT
Explore the basics of modular synths and the importance of transwomen in electronic music
Sign up for all workshops here All workshops are free and open to all with some spaces available on the door if possible, but places are limited so please sign up in advance if possible so we have an idea of numbers and to ensure your place.
If a workshop is marked as SOLD OUT in advance, there should be a few places available for people without a ticket – please contact Hestia for more details.
If you have booked a place but can no longer attend, please let Hestia know so someone else can use your place.
Open Sessions
Other ways to take part — no need to book — everyone welcome
- Open Jam (Sat 2–4pm)
- Open Mic (at the Salisbury Arms), opposite Quip & Curiosity (Sat 3–5pm)
Poetry / music / performance / monologue / movement / dance / speech - Artists’ Coffee Morning and exhibition viewing (Sun 11am–1pm)
Come along to meet other local artists, view the exhibition space and get involved in workshops - Open Jam (Sun 2:30–4:30pm)
Saturday Schedule
Sunday Schedule
Gideon Pain Tiger Town (2023)
A new space for Cambridge
Quip & Curiosity is a new contemporary art space in Cambridge City Centre that supports regional, national and international contemporary artists through a curated and artist-led exhibition and events programme.
The space will host projects that reflect its core interests in cross-disciplinary practice. It aims to facilitate opportunities, develop programmes that foster a collaborative and inclusive atmosphere and create an open network for creatives in the region and afar.
The property, maintained by the multi-media artist and musician Taren McCallan-Moore, was built in 1860. After many years as a dairy, science lab, recording studio and a home for many years to postgraduates, Quip & Curiosity established itself as a business in 1982, the collaboration of Paula McCallan-Moore and the late Graeme Grant Bruce, selling antique curios and contemporary lighting. The space had its first taste of life as an exhibition space during the late eighties. It was hosted by Paula McCallan-Moore, giving voice to Cambridge artists spanning textiles, sculpture and conventional visual art practice.
Please note: 71 Tenison Road is a private address; visitors are personal guests of the proprietors.