About the Organisation
The UK Communities Conference is an annual weekend gathering initiated in 2022 to share and celebrate our experience of living in intentional communities. The inspiration came from a similar event which runs at Twin Oaks community in the USA (although we have no affiliation with them) and a recognition of the lack of this kind of event in the UK. Braziers Park community hosted the first three events, but we are now starting to explore other communities. Our next event will be at Canon Frome Court, and we hope that we will continue to travel around the UK. We have enjoyed the experience of developing the events, and hope that they offer a mixture of community-building, celebration, and deeper explorations of important themes.
If you have something that you want to offer, or are part of a community which might be interested in hosting a future event, then you are welcome to get in touch with us at ukcommunitiesconference@gmail.com
The core team works with residents of the current host community to bring together an event which is both curated and collaboratively created. We also collaborate with Diggers and Dreamers, who publish books and a directory of UK communities.
The current conference team is:
Ian Hare (he/him)
Some people dream of a better world through poetry, art, and music. Ian prefers to work on the details—project plans, policies, spreadsheets, and negotiated agreements. Previously a research resident at Braziers Park, where he co-organised the first UK Communities Conference, he has visited over 20 communities, including a three-month stay at Tamera in Portugal. He is inspired by utopian fiction (e.g., Piercy and le Guin) and by early communitarians like the Diggers.
Outside the communities movement, Ian holds a PhD in philosophy of psychiatry. He finds community both rewarding and challenging, but believes life is most worth living when shared.
Claudia Marcos Sánchez Manrique (she/they)
Born and raised in Peru, Claudia has been living in ecovillages, cohousing, and intentional communities in South America and Europe for the last 5 years. They previously worked in social programs in NGOs and government departments in Peru looking to generate equal opportunities for people living in communities in vulnerable situations.
They are interested in spiritual development, inner exploration, and healing processes. In the last few years, they have started to work with movement, performance, singing, arts and crafts, and all sorts of tools that allow them to understand and express their feelings. For them, community living (even all the complexity and challenges it presents) is Sumak Kawsay (Quechua language), where sumak refers to the ideal and beautiful fulfillment of all beings on the planet, and kawsay means “life,” a life with dignity, plenitude, balance, and harmony.
Alex Toogood (he/they)
Alex Toogood is a resident at Tinkers Bubble off-grid community in South Somerset, where they are involved in a variety of aspects of fossil-fuel-free land management. Before moving to Tinkers Bubble, they have volunteered and stayed in various land-based and spiritual communities in the UK, including spending a year as a lay guest in the Thai Forest Buddhist monasteries and undertaking a traineeship at Pentiddy Woods in Cornwall.
They are interested in a humanity which can see beyond itself, expressed through connection with the land, including food and fuel production. They often find community life both frustrating and hopeful, and have a conviction of the necessity of this way of living, as we experiment with what it means to be human. Rather than finding joy and meaning in community, it is the paradoxes and complications that seem to hold fascination and make this life compelling, demanding, and vital.
Chris Taylor (he/him)
Chris has lived at Cannon Frome Court for nearly six years. It’s been a steep learning curve (which is why he joined!). He really enjoys the social aspects of community life and especially working together on the land.
Chris is learning incredible amounts about growing food, caring for the ecology and working collaboratively. Overall it’s a joy! When he's not working on the farm he's writing poetry, practicing tai chi or holding transformative spaces for young people.
Emma Burtt (she/her)
Emma's first experience of being in community began whilst living in New Zealand; it was here the seeds were sown. On returning to the UK she knew she wanted to live differently and raise her family more deeply intertwined with nature and more closely connected to people. Having lived at Earth Heart Housing Co-operative for over 10 years Emma has learnt so much about both the joys and challenges of community living.
Recently, Emma has been co-creating Earth celebrations that intertwine her passion for collaborative play, Earth cantered creativity, singing and community; nurturing connections and cultivating a sense of interconnectedness with nature.
Emma is often exploring a life full of learning, homeschooling her two wonderful sons with her husband, and loves deep diving into permaculture, wandering the hedgerows, learning their medicine, creating, singing, writing, dancing the 5 rhythms or experimenting with a new fermented creation.
