An experimental gathering in service of creative energy

Foregather Hartland 2024 in review

Emily Bazalgette

Laura Malan

, and

Fran Cook

Dec 19, 2024

A rough and steep path leading down a hill, with five women walking down it — Foregather Hartland participants clambering down to the beach

“This was such an enriching experience, so thoughtfully and carefully designed and curated to enable me to bring the best version of myself. I felt so well cared for, physically and psychologically. I came feeling a sense of urgency to develop one of my ideas but left with more confidence and a deep sense of self-belief. There was beauty, magic, joy, vulnerability, companionship and ease. It really has to be experienced to understand. Thanks to the generous creators and hosts.”
— Anita

At the start of the year, we dreamed about creating the opposite of an innovation accelerator. Of slowly cultivating creative energy to incubate women’s hopeful ideas, stories and contributions. Of simple practices to help women1 deepen their relationships with self, community and the earth, unleashing creative power and potential.

Big visions indeed; how could we ground them in something real?

As you might expect from three designers, we began with an experiment: Foregather Hartland, a three-day gathering in North Devon in September 2024. In retrospect, a wild leap of faith. We had five months to design, launch and promote an ambitious gathering of the kind we’d never hosted before (in between our day jobs). We needed 10 women to take a similar leap and join us or we risked losing our venue deposit. We had just three days to help participants connect meaningfully with creative energy.

“My partner, not a man for hyperbole, said to me yesterday: “Foregather was the most influential weekend of your life”.”
— Lizzie, a participant

Our experiment gave us a compelling first proof of concept. This post is an attempt to capture the gathering’s profound and peculiar magic: what we did, who was there, our creative energy connection practices, and what has been shifting for the participants since the weekend. We’re grateful for their kind words throughout this piece, illuminating the experience more brightly than we ever could.

Agenda and participants

As we expected, the most impactful moments in the agenda were the emergent, in-between spaces, rather than any structured sessions. Still, all gatherings need some organising structure. We bookended the weekend with opening and closing circles, and offered facilitated group sessions on bringing ideas to life and connecting with creative energy. Participants made good use of our “office hours”: one-to-one creative coaching to develop their ideas or unblock obstacles to creativity.

Our carefully curated group of 10 women and nonbinary folks (spread across our pricing tiers) brought a range of ideas, enquiries and callings to as yet unknown creative paths. With themes including climate and migration, anti-racism, neurodiversity, creative sexual exploration, parenting and motherhood, gentle justice and power-sharing.

“You don't even realise you need Foregather until you experience it. I came to Foregather to talk about climate and migration justice. Instead, I spent my time talking about intuition, inner purpose, and foremothers. I am a deeply practical person and this was deliciously unexpected. The weekend spent in community with incredible, passionate, bold women was less about the practicalities of taking my ideas off the page, and more about reconnecting to why I’m doing this work.”
— Julia

Practices

We believe in the power of regular practices to heal separation and bring us back into relationship. Practices that encourage joy, rest, care, pleasure, beauty and magic. Practices that are, in many ways, decolonial; we’ll save that big thought for a future post.

Over the weekend, our remembering looked like:

Beautiful, abundant, sensory pleasures that nourish creativity: homemade plant oils, wildflower arrangements, herbal teas, candles, creative food, ritual, Māia Moeone’s and Laura’s candlelit yin and energy work session, singing together, and grooving in the kitchen to a banging playlist
Creating a “temporary village”: participants helped to prepare meals, clear up and tend to the fire. We checked in each morning for “village tune ups”, agreeing together the changes needed to make a better functioning community
Moments of communion and intimacy, for example, the deep medicine of singing and weaving together by firelight until late in the evening: “The singing circle was magical and felt like the real embodiment of our village”
Gently facilitated activities that allowed participants to progressively share more of themselves and their ideas as the weekend unfolded, rather than rushing vulnerability and intimacy
Leaving space in the agenda for our participants’ gifts. For example, Jenny taught us how to weave with handmade cardboard looms and natural materials sourced from a walk in Hartland, a real weekend highlight
Practising tending to our needs while holding the needs of the collective: “The ‘rule’ of self-care first is so FREEING and quietly radical”. Every activity was optional and our pace was slow. Seeing women and nonbinary folks resting and luxuriating in space, time and softness was such a balm. “I’m only just starting to listen to my body, and this was a massive step in that direction to model how I can do that in practise”.

“Foregather was a truly magical and profoundly life-changing experience which now is in me, it runs through my blood. The accessibility, accommodations, support and scaffolding around people who are neurodivergent, disabled, chronically ill or carers was phenomenal… My practice has changed. I now have absolute certainty that I can work in a way that is authentic to myself and to the communities that I serve. That's down to Foregather’s equitable, neuro-affirmative, anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal approach, its celebration of uniqueness and the connection back to ancestry and foremothers.”
— Jennifer

L-R: three white women and one Black woman sit on sofas and the floor writing in journals, with tissues, herbs and a jug of herbal tea in the foreground. A group of nine women stand in a circle on the lawn of a farmhouse, in the background. 10 women eating lunch around a farmhouse style table, with floral arrangements in the centre. Three women crouch on the wooden floor of a barn, their backs to us, lighting candles. In the foreground is a floral mandala arrangement. Four women clamber down a steep coastal path to the beach — L - R: Journalling, embodied facilitation practices, village lunch, preparing for our opening circle and beach walks

“Foregather was a wonderfully witchy and transformative experience for me.
The beauty of the space, the thoughtful curation of the women who were brought together, the way we were supported and held to truly look into ourselves and each other was much more than I hoped for. The experience will keep building in me for a very long time and I'm so grateful for that and my new Foregather family.” — Dionne

Shifts

We’re overwhelmed by participants’ kind words throughout this piece, and their sincere feedback in the months since. Many said something along the lines of: “it's still really difficult to articulate or even truly understand how Foregather has impacted me”. As hosts, it’s hard for us to make sense of what we created together too.

After three months of reflection and integration, we’re now ready to say a little about how Foregather has been shifting participants’ relationship with self, community and the earth.

“I honestly feel the impact will continue to build in the days, weeks, months and years to come...”
— Participant

Self

Participants have told us they feel more connected to their intuition and their purpose, and inspired to make changes in their lives, big and small. They have greater clarity, coherence and self-efficacy; they believe they can create and accomplish things that previously felt too difficult.

“I feel a shift. It’s hard to express, but I feel more confident and powerful, I feel a greater sense of possibility and less intimidated. I feel more agency. I’m going to start some ventures.”
— Participant
"I feel different. Energised. Let’s go! Connected with myself. Ready. Like some barriers to things happening melted on closer inspection. I feel (and this sounds grand), like I’m tipping into a new era for myself."
— Participant

Community

Through the group’s growing bond, we observed participants widening the circle of people who could help them bring ideas to life and build their creative confidence.

“We really so quickly felt like a community, a Foregather family… we are a new tribe of women who… are continuing to lift each other up. I'm so very, very grateful for that.”
— Participant

Our model of community expands beyond immediate circles to include our foremothers, the lineages of women before us. This resonated with many in the group.

“I came to Foregather to talk about climate and migration justice. Instead, I spent my time talking about intuition, inner purpose, and foremothers. I am a deeply practical person and this was deliciously unexpected.”
— Julia

Earth

Shifts in earth-connection were more subtle; unlearning our disconnection from land is the work of more than three days.

We did notice that participants deeply appreciated the earth-based elements of our gathering design. Particularly the rugged coastline of Hartland and our incorporation of wildflowers from the land into the opening and closing circles. They adored the locally sourced, seasonal food and Māia Moeone’s beautiful Te reo Māori blessing for our Saturday evening meal. They curiously observed our reverence for Hartland’s more-than-human inhabitants and have developed an interest in seasonality and ancestral practices. Many have taken the local Dartmoor folk songs we sang into their communities.

“[My connection to plants] is new and joyful and so, so obvious. Laura made a couple of suggestions and now I am drying herbs and drinking sage tea and living my best life!”
— Participant

Sunset sky with a garden in the foreground, a blue shed to the right. A Black woman's hands holding a handmade cardboard loom with yellow wool. A floral mandala arrangement. A group of women sit in a circle in a barn. One woman is standing and gesturing widely (white, shoulder length brown hair, wearing a pink jumpsuit). A group of women sit in a circle lit only by firelight and candlelight — L-R: Hartland sunset, a handmade loom, our creative energy mandala, a session on 'bringing ideas to life', singing and weaving together by firelight

Closing

As an experiment, Foregather Hartland demonstrated that our model for bringing people together to connect with creative energy has great potency.

We believe intentional gatherings are essential medicine for our unsettling, loud and complex times. Those of us from Western cultures in particular need “temporary villages”, spaces where we can rehearse living more collectively, with all of its joys and discomforts.

The weekend was not all rainbows and sisterhood (lest you think Foregather Hartland was a feminine utopia). Grief, disconnection and tears were present at times; we welcomed everything without trying to fix or rescue. After all, transformative experiences require a little grit.

There’s more to say about what we’ve learned, but for now, we’re still savouring the memory of seeing each other inhabit the fullest expression of our gifts. Including the quieter parts that don’t belong on LinkedIn. For Laura, her plant and energy work; for Emily, leading groups in song; for Fran, cooking for and nourishing people.

“Foregather really is a quite magical, tender space to deeply connect with yourself and your purpose, held in community by courageous, awe-inspiring women. It opened up a world of possibility and power that I had lost connection with and that felt truly mine to take forward into the world but at the same time anchored within a community of practice - past, present and future.”
— Jenny

*Participants dressed up for our Equinox dinner, adorned in the items that make them feel fully themselves. On the table is a “Rainbow Feast”, with a dish for every colour of the rainbow*

Given the long waiting list of people keen for future gatherings, we’d love to host more Foregather weekends. We intend to keep offering discounted and supported pricing, and to find a way for gatherings in the Global North to subsidise those in the Global South. We’re still dreaming of Foregather in South Africa (Laura’s other home).

We hope to say more about the thinking and practices that make up Foregather, including our creative energy map.

We dream of transitioning Foregather from a side project into something we can sustainably devote time to. We’re exploring potential funding models: cross-subsidy, philanthropy, sponsorship, crowdfunding and more.

Please get in touch if you have suggestions for what we could explore or people we should speak to. Or perhaps you’re interested in a bespoke gathering for your community or team? hello@foregather.co.

If Foregather resonates with you, please consider “buying us a coffee” to support the work.

“It’s difficult to describe, but even the glimmers of things I have mentioned to friends have led to them murmuring “I need that”. Foregather has given me a bigger, brighter, broader view, out and above the relentless task list that is running a team and being a mother, carer and partner. It feels calmer up here, more creative, and connected to what I would love for myself and some growing possibilities. I’ve come away with two nascent and hopeful ideas to develop, people to develop them with, and some new practices and habits that create space. And a community of sparkling, hilarious and talented women that are rooting for each other. It was so much more than I hoped for, and what I didn’t know that I deeply needed.”
— Lizzie

If you’re curious to hear directly from a participant, read

Julia Beart

’s blog post about her Foregather Hartland experience.

Conversations at our gatherings focus on women’s experiences and how they relate to creativity, including references to female physicality. We welcome all women and nonbinary folks for whom this focus resonates.