The Sunday Lunch Club

The Sunday Lunch Club was a peer networking, work share and meal event that ran six times a year for three years. Initially started by our Artistic Director as part of a bursary from New Work Network and Nuffield Theatre Lancaster, the Sunday Lunch Club was run by Proto-type in its second and third year. The 2009 programme was funded by Nuffield Theatre Lancaster with additional support from LanWest, New Work Network and Arts Council England through the Grants. Events have been hosted throughout the North West with four events in Yorkshire.

Each event was structured around peer sharing of work: two-three artists show an excerpt from a new work that they would like feedback on; we then lead the artists through Critical Response to help them gain a greater understanding of the impact their work has on an audience. After the work share, guests are invited to enjoy a Sunday lunch, which has been catered in for the event.

The guest list was made up of artists, programmers and funders from the region and at any event between fifteen and fifty people attended. We invited special guests who might have a particular interest in the artists who are showing work to try and make practical connections as well. The combination of formal artistic critique and informal networking around a meal proved to be extremely popular and successful. In the three years of running the program, the guest list has expanded to over two-hundred artists, at least eight artists have had bookings as a result of a showing at the lunch club, and four artists have made successful Arts Council England applications after receiving support from the company. Events have been hosted at Axis Arts Centre, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Greenroom, Nuffield Theatre Lancaster, the Rose (Ormskirk), UCLAN, Lanternhouse, the Junction (Goole), the Lawrence Batley Theatre and Leeds Met Studio Theatre.