The Convivial is a not-for-profit community symposium founded by Sophie Craven in 2024. It was inspired by a lecture given by Valentin Gerlier on Ivan Illich’s concept of conviviality at Schumacher College in Devon, during Sophie’s MA Poetics of Imagination at the school.
Newly situated from June 2025 in a space on Penryn Lower Market Street, it is an experiment in civic, other-than-institutional learning. In a time where universities and public institutions are often operating a commercialised learning model, and education is treated as a consumable, what does it mean for a community to teach itself without compromising on quality and ethics? What does it mean to offer learning through financial transaction as well as gift economy, skills exchange and conviviality?
Courses, events and talks
The Convivial offers a wide range of courses, events and talks delivered by a wide range of local and external teachers, facilitators and practitioners across ecology, arts, storytelling, queerness, mythologies and place-based practice.
Financial modelling
In the spirit of transparency, we plan to share our financial records at the end of our first twelve-month tenure in the new space.
The Convivial pays its ground rent through the letting of four studio spaces.
The Convivial believes in equitable relationships which are fluid and always renegotiable based on fluctuating financial situations and ever changing personal capacities. We are committed to exploring a world that is based on reciprocity, mutual aid and shared respect, as well as an understanding of systemic inequalities and the greater barriers to learning for many within our communities.
We take great care to work with every practitioner-teacher as well as every attendee to structure the relationship in a way that suits that particular dynamic. Each course is therefore structured differently in terms of its cost and ways to attend.
All courses and events will offer ways in which people can attend through other-than-financial means. With every offering available, there will be a sliding scale of costs and in considering your contribution we invite you to think about:
Your own financial position
The efforts, expertise and experience of those facilitating the offering
The costs involved in providing the space
Our ability to provide learning to those who experience greater economic instability based on systemic barriers
You are also very much encouraged to get in touch if you cannot meet the financial minimum. We want you with us and are always happy to talk about how that could happen in a way that feels equitable and reciprocal to all involved.
Donations
If you enjoy a greater financial freedom and would like to contribute to The Convivial’s vision for civic learning, we gratefully accept donations to our Community Support Fund. Every penny of this fund will go towards providing spaces on courses to those who need it.
Please email hellotheconvivial@gmail.com to find out more about this.
Values
The Convivial has a set of four core values which guide us as our North Star:
Hospitality
The commitment to showing the hospitality of the mind, body and soul to new ideas. The commitment to be generous and hospitable to facilitators as they share their wisdom, thoughts and experience, as well as to the space and the group as a whole. The commitment to being curious and generative, rather than critical and oblique.
Presence
The commitment to being together in a room and in a moment without distractions. The commitment to honouring the gathering with our attention. The commitment to turning off our bloody phones for a few hours!
Shared wisdom
The commitment to sharing wisdom within community and improving access to knowledge for all. The commitment to poking a hole in the institutional and financial barriers to learning. The commitment to equitability and justice.
Imagination
The commitment to imagining new ways of being in the world. The commitment to holding paradox and complexity in our hearts. The commitment to offering portals to other ways of being and new worlds.