Spark: Scratch Night 2026
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Scratch Night is Back for 2026!
What happens before a finished piece of work reaches a stage, gallery, publisher or audience?
Scratch Night invites you into that process.
Join us for an evening of four new and developing works from local creatives, spanning different artforms and ideas. Each artist will share something they are currently testing, questioning or developing - and they want to know what you think.
You don't need any specialist knowledge and there are no wrong answers. Come along, experience the work, join the conversation if you want to, and help our artists work out where their ideas might go next.
A FREE glass of prosecco, a bottle beer, or fruit juice will be offered on arrival, and a cash bar is available throughout the evening.
🗓️ Tuesday 10 November 2026, 6:30pm - 9:00pm
📌 Royal Pump Rooms, Assembly Room, Leamington Spa
🎟️ FREE to attend but advance registration required
The Programme
1. Andrew Higgins - The Conversation
🎵 Experimental music / spoken word
The Conversation brings together the recorded voices of two women with an experimental electronic soundtrack and live improvisation.
Rather than presenting a finished composition, Andrew Higgins will use Scratch Night to test how these different elements work together in front of an audience - and what happens when a piece deliberately leaves space for unpredictability.
Andrew is particularly interested in how audiences respond to the combination of conversation and music, how the work might develop as a live performance, and whether future versions could incorporate visual elements.
2. Jen Flannery - New novel in development
📖 Fiction / live reading
Writer Jen Flannery shares the opening of a new novel, beginning with a fictionalised account of escaping a wildfire - inspired by an experience she lived through herself in 2023.
Hearing those opening pages for the first time, what kind of story do you think you're entering? What captures your attention, what are you curious about - and where do you expect the story to take you?
Jen is testing what her opening communicates to a reader before she takes the novel further, and your first impressions will give her something she can't get from people already familiar with the work: a genuinely fresh response.
3. Warwickshire Photographers’ Collective and Leamington Studio Artists - Leamington Re-imagined
📸 Photography / visual art / multimedia
What happens when you put Leamington's past and present side by side?
Leamington Re-imagined is a collaborative project bringing together historic photographs of the town with newly created photography and artwork responding to them - sometimes reflecting the originals, sometimes reinterpreting them and sometimes deliberately disrupting them.
This Scratch Night sharing introduces the idea while it is still developing. The team wants to hear your reactions, make new connections and explore how local people and organisations might help shape the project - including identifying stories and archive material that could become part of it.
4. To Be Announced
💃 Dance
How it Works
Never been to a Scratch Night before? Don’t worry we’ll walk you through it!
The evening features a programme of work (above) from a mix of local artists. After each sharing, there’ll be a chance for the audience to chat with the artists about what they’ve seen. Offering feedback, thoughts, or just curiosity about the creative process.
Prefer to simply watch and soak it all in? That’s absolutely fine too! There’s no pressure to take part in discussions you can just sit back and enjoy.
Some artists may also have a few questions for the audience to think about before or after their piece. This evening is about conversation, networking, and seeing ideas develop!
Background
Scratch Night provides artists, creatives and makers with the opportunity to test ideas, share developing work, and connect with audiences in a supportive environment. The event forms part of Warwick District Council’s ongoing commitment to strengthening the region’s creative ecology, sparking fresh ideas and ensuring arts and culture remain at the heart of the district.
Further Information
For further information, please contact Johnathan Branson, Projects and Development Manager (Arts) on johnathan.branson@warwickdc.gov.uk