QAN at Greenbelt
Greenbelt 2026
For the third year running, QAN will once again be holding a Quaker space at Greenbelt Festival, where we will be inviting festival goers to join us in co-creating a collaborative visual artwork exploring the line from Advices & Queries "Think it possible that you may be mistaken."
This is one of a series of artworks devised by Kirsten Lavers "Admitting the possibility of error"
Each drawing emerged from a meditative process that begins with the perimeter line of a perfect circle, evolving thereafter from repeated attempts to perfectly copy the preceding line. Small mistakes accumulate, creating images reminiscent of fingerprints or tree rings. Over 15 years this simple approach grew from doodling into an in depth engagement with a range of experiences and issues creating possibilities for conversations around our desire for perfection and discomfort with fallibility.
Come and visit us in the Takeaway Zone, join us for Epilogues in the Wild Goose tent and the Franciscan gazebo, and join us for the big festival Meeting for Worship!
Image - Kintsugi 2018 Kirsten Lavers
Greenbelt 2024
2024 was the 50th year of the Christian-based Greenbelt Festival held at Boughton House near Kettering, from August 23rd to 25th. We were very excited to be hosting a gazebo at Greenbelt for the first time, which was a welcoming space for exploring, creating, reflecting and finding out about Quaker spirituality and witness.
Our aims were to:
- Celebrate and raise the profile of Quakers, our spirituality, witness and creative arts practices
- Provide information about Quakers and invite festival attenders to Quaker Meetings
- Support Quakers in Northamptonshire
- Encourage Friends to share their Quaker faith with others
- Explore the feasibility of a continuing association with Greenbelt
All in all the project went very well, with around 500 folk visiting the gazebo, joining in quiet activities such as board games, arts and crafts, poetry and conversations and 200 people attending Meeting for Worship in the Shelter. Several visitors shared how they first encountered Quakers at Greenbelt and have since become members.
It was good to have a mix of newer and seasoned Friends of different ages, including some who were involved in other parts of Greenbelt.
Our presence created a significant outreach opportunity with roughly 300 copies of Advices and Queries distributed. A two-hour looped slide show and catalogue, curated by Kirsten Lavers, submitted by Quaker artists of images by particular queries filled a large screen (provided by Jesus Lane Quaker Meeting) at one end of the gazebo.
An exhibition of Loving Earth Project panels was also very well received and participants in our two workshops were so enthusiastic that we held a third informal one, which was particularly enjoyed by a group of young teenagers.
Greenbelt 2025
In 2025 we were back to Greenbelt again, this time with a theme of racial justice for the International Day Marking the Abolition of Slavery. We displayed the Woolford and Woolford: No Relation exhibition, and acted as a hub for Quaker activities on site which included Michael Mears' performance of The Mistake, Poetry performances by James Pendle, and a series of art-based Quaker epilogues in collaboration with Iona Community and Francsiscans.
We were very happy to see that over 2000 people engaged with QAN related events during the course of the festival, and we look forward to returning in 2026.