The idea behind the ‘Gift’ weekends can seem confusing. It was confusing every time I tried to sell it to the punters:

Punter: So, let me get this straight? You want me to give up a Friday night, a Saturday, and a Saturday night to come and work with a group of strangers, drawn from across Colchester, on creating some ‘art’ – whatever the hell that means? - based upon a personal response to the town. But no one will tell me what that ‘art’ should be – drama? music? installation? – or how my group will create it? You’ll feed me all weekend and none of this will cost me a penny but I have to bring everyone involved a ‘gift’ – because this whole process is also about exploring the link between creativity and generosity; how giving something of ourselves, sharing a joke or singing a song, feeling genuinely vulnerable in front of others, somehow allows us all, however briefly, to connect more deeply with our own humanity and the humanity of others?

Me: Yeah.

Punter: Right…I’m really confused?

See what I mean…oddly enough, once people had done it they didn’t seem to be confused anymore. They were just smiling. All of them, sitting together at the end of their weekend; one hundred and twenty of them so far…just smiling.

The ‘Gift’ weekends were originally conceived by the Mercury’s Artistic Director Dee Evans and are inspired by Lewis Hyde’s book, ‘The Gift’.

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