Fearing the re-union? Why re-gathering is good for the soul.

I had the dubious pleasure of attending a school reunion last year when my old high school announced it was marking its 70th Birthday with a shindig one Saturday in June. It promised so much (reviving old friendships, rekindling old memories and fondly reimagining what we actually did at school) but when was all said and done, and the event had taken place, it delivered very little in those terms.

I realised that much like ‘Facebook Friends’ who aren’t actual friends at all but just people you share a bit of cyberspace with for a fraction of the time you spend on the internet, many of those old school ‘friendships’ fell by the wayside for a very good reason: those ‘friends’ weren’t friends at all but just acquaintances I had to share my physical day with by virtue of the fact that we were born in the same academic year and happened to live in roughly the same geographic region at that point in history. Just when I thought I had all my memories safely packed away in a box labelled ‘Treasures’, the reunion caused that box to relabel itself ‘Pandoras’ and my relationship with that institution has never been the same since.

So, the false friendships, the alarming memories and the potential combination of over promising and under delivering are all good reasons not to attend any school reunion ever again.

But.

With all that baggage gathering in our homes as we prepare for an imminent LIPA reunion, we might answer the question of why here, why now by accepting that the imminent Community Arts LIPA reunion in August 2025 isn’t merely a matter of rekindling old memories that died out for very good reason: it also gives all of us the opportunity to reassess together what that work meant to us back then and perhaps more importantly to consider what it might mean for us and our wider society and its futures.

A Community Arts infused reunion will be more than just about sharing food and gossip and participating in the occasional brawl over the weekend; it will also be about making new friends from the company of strangers; it will be about seeing people in the flesh for the very first time in many years rather than through the shiny electronic veneer the social media platforms dress us up in; and it will give us an opportunity to take stock – privately and collaboratively – about what that time in our lives meant to us.

It will also be about re-minding and re-membering how arts and culture need to continue to play a role in improving all our lives, all the time, everywhere. Whitewashed memories are one thing: helping construct whole new futures for those who follow in our footsteps is quite another and something worth regathering for.