Wed 10th Dec 2025
Creative Networking Event - 10 December + short film screening, Q&A
2:00pm - 9:00pm
Price: Free with Booking
Creative Industry Network – Special Programme
Wednesday 10 December | Hat District | Free (booking required)
Join us on 10 December for an extended Creative Industry Network event, bringing together film, photography, visual arts and community networking across the Hat District.
📸 Free Photographic Headshot Sessions
2pm–5pm | Hat Works
Photographer Vasile Burla offers free creative headshots for artists and freelancers. Free with booking: https://www.culturetrust.com/whats-on/free-portrait-headshot-sessions
🎥 Screening & Live Q&A with Swapnil Patil
6pm–7pm | The Fabulous Hatter (basement of the Hat Factory)
A special screening and conversation with London-based artist Swapnil Patil, presenting his new short film created with local collaborators.
The work draws from his project The Empty Spaces: Personal Absolute Space Point, exploring how individuals create inner zones of clarity and emotional grounding. Guided by his ICSAS method—Inner, Context, Space, Action, Silence—Swapnil’s practice moves between documentary and conceptual performance, revealing the quiet psychological spaces we all hold within ourselves.
🤝 Creative Industry Network – Monthly Networking
7pm–9pm | Hat Factory
Booking link: https://www.culturetrust.com/whats-on/creative-industry-network
Meet fellow creatives for an evening of conversation, collaboration and inspiration.
This month’s networking features artists Armindo de Matos and Irena Gil, whose exhibition What We Become runs in the Long Gallery until 12 December.
Armindo de Matos –Used: everyday objects reworked into reflections on impermanence and resilience.
Irena Gil –Wishing Dolls: faceless Slavic-inspired figures exploring vulnerability, desire and self-presentation.
You’ll have opportunities to meet the artists, hear about their work, and view the exhibition as part of the evening.
About the Long Gallery
A new visual arts initiative within the Hat Factory, the Long Gallery hosts open calls, commissions, group shows and affordable exhibition opportunities. Upcoming programmes include South Asian illustration and a community photography project, with a submissions portal launching soon.
All events are free with booking.
Join us, connect, ask questions and be part of Luton’s creative community.
Dates
- Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Hat Works, 47 Guildford Street, Luton, LU1 2NQ
The Hat Factory
The Hat Factory is Luton's leading arts and entertainment venue featuring live music, club nights, theatre, dance, films, children's activities, workshops, classes and gallery exhibitions.
It's a centre of artistic excellence set within a vibrant urban environment. It offers the young and the young at heart the chance to engage with the arts, to be inspired by the UK’s leading arts practitioners, and to develop artistic skills and confidence.
The Hat Factory is a combined arts venue in the centre of Luton. It opened in 2003 and since then has been the area’s main provider of contemporary theatre, dance and music. We work with both emerging and proven producers and artists, through programming, engagement programmes and our Associate Artist scheme. Their music programming is vibrant, offering an eclectic portfolio of high quality artists from the worlds of jazz, blues, folk, world music, indie and hip hop. Complementing their own programming, they welcome local/regional promoters to the venue, broadening their music offer and at the same time supporting young promoters and their businesses. They programme contemporary theatre and dance with a focus on fresh, new and relevant stories from both established and emerging touring companies who are making high quality work in the UK. They’ve programmed companies like Earthfall, Chickenshed, New International Encounter (NIE), Trestle, Menagerie, Eastern Angles, Atma, State of Emergency, 30 Bird, Tavaziva, Analogue and Jean Abreu Dance to name but a few.
Venue Hire
The Hat Factory has flexible spaces of various sizes to suit every need. See Venue Hire for more information.
Programming
To become part of The Hat Factory's programme, please contact our Head of Arts & Cultural Programmes, Fahim Qureshi at Fahim.Qureshi@LutonCulture.com