by Jennifer BrooksOn the last Bank Holiday weekend of May 2008, the city of Carlisle threw an arts festival to celebrate the huge range of established and emerging culture within the city. In accordance with this, the Carlisle Arts Hub held events and exhibitions throughout the weekend, and on the Monday we threw a tea party in the town centre, to give everyone a chance to catch their breath (apart from the waitresses!) and reflect on the weekends events. The tea party was held in the bandstand, and served hot tea and freshly iced buns for free to all comers.

Costs wise, the event turned out to be rather more expensive than originally envisioned: around £30 was spent on tea bags, sugar lumps, buns and milk. The real cost was in providing delicate, nostalgic china tea sets in which to serve the tea (coming to about £50 all together after scouring the charity shops of Carlisle) and a range of non-matching, oddly decorated teapots from different sources (about £40). However, the band stand and The Tithe Barn (a local church hall come events venue in the town centre) had both already been booked out by the Arts Festival committee and so were provided free of charge.

The event went swimmingly, with many people- some knowing about the arts festival, some up until then oblivious- enjoying the beverages and treats and being prompted to discuss how the tea party could be considered part of an artist’s practice. There was a slight blip mid-way when our kitchen access was blocked by a misunderstanding about who was supposed to lock what when, but this was soon resolved and tea serving recommenced.

The event was great fun, and although (as usual with these things) there were moments of extreme stress, I feel that it opened up the arts within Carlisle to an audience that had perhaps missed it before. It has helped to develop my confidence as an artist, organising events such as these and also in dealing with the public and explaining to them what it’s all about.I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to my wonderful helpers and waitresses: Hannah Stewart, Katy Auld, Jen Martin, Kat Ostlundh, Chloe Burns, Ben Wohl and the littlest waitress, Skye. I’d also like to thank The Carlisle Arts Festival and The Cumbria Network for their support of the event.

Jennifer Brooks successfully applied for a Cumbria Network Alchemy Award for her Tea Party. To apply for an award please visit the Alchemy Awards page and download the information.