/ Hospitality

Our current three year programme explores the concept of hospitality through the notions of slow travel, food + hosting and conversation + language.

In operation for over 15 years, Deveron Arts has built up a tradition of hosting visitors from across the globe. In collaboration with other local agencies and businesses we now want to explore this notion of 'hospitality' further through the development of a series of artist-led projects that encompass our town, its community and visitors alike.

Hospitality  - wikipedia says - 'is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable'. Specifically, this includes the reception, treatment and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers and other services for travellers and tourists.

When offering hospitality one offers time: time to grow, time to cook, time to eat, time to talk, time to walk. It is time that is now often labelled as 'quality time'. This time is for many of us today the most precious resource. Hosting time fosters slow things like good food, appreciating the surroundings, a slower pace of life and communication. It is hospitable to new ideas, letting them seed, grow and flourish.

In our forthcoming three year programme we want to focus on hospitality ethics and how this relates to Huntly, by focusing on three - often time intensive - activities and concepts:

1.       Travel: Walking and other forms of Slow Transport

2.       Hosting: Food, Eating and Accommodation

3.       Understanding: Language and Communication

All three concepts foster a healthy lifestyle for both body and mind. The artistically driven programme will be complemented through a combination of considered eating + living, more physical activity and conscious efforts in mutual understanding, where the artists are both guest and host.

The programme promotes a lifestyle that will assist Huntly in exploring Cittaslow status, an international network of towns across the world that have adopted a set of common goals and principles to enhance their quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

Enjoy our hospitality every Friday at our Friday Lunches