This Thursday: Open Arts Café

There's an unusual event held about once a month near Marble Arch and its on again this week. The Open Arts Café is an evening which tries to bring together as many different art forms as possible under the banner of a loose theme which varies each month. As its founder points out, there are many opportunities for artists to meet artists, poets to meet poets and playwrights to meet playwrights, but London was sorely lacking a true melting pot where people from every discipline could come together. The result is the café, where work in all stages of development can be shown to interested people in a supportive atmosphere and feedback obtained early enough in a project's life for it to be useful.

Last month the theme was "Into Darkness" and we were talking about getting my nocturnes on display there but sadly it wasn't possible due to other commitments on my part. This month, the theme is "Secrets, Enigmas & Puzzles". Expect to see a poet, a musician, a dance troupe, two visual artists, a contemporary almost sample-based classical composer and a jazz trio whle the founder/hostesss/mc performs a few songs in between acts. The venue is a synagogue and it happens to fall on Channukah, so although the evening itself is normally not a religious thing there will be a chance to witness one of the rituals which in itself should be fascinating to see - I have never set foot in a synagogue before! Entry is on a "pay what you can" basis and I'm fully expecting it to be a little bizarre, a little thought provoking, possibly at times a little annoying but almost certainly a bit of a giggle. I like secrets, so I'm definitely getting there this month albeit as a member of the audience rather than a participant.