Creating thinking space
The Conversation Agency is a small agency specialising in philosophical inquiry for arts, education and cultural sector organisations. Founded and led by Ayisha De Lanerolle in 2008, the Conversation Agency has worked with over 25 clients in the UK and Spain. We aim to provide the opportunity for young and old to engage with big ideas in a stimulating joyful, playful and creative way.
“From an early age we begin sculpting ideas into opinions with a mixture of reason and passion. A 3 year old will already be wondering and negotiating is this real? is that true? Am I naughty? Is this mine? The reactions and responses we get to these questions shape our most fundamental interactions with the world. The conversation agency offers opportunities to engage in reviewing ideas together, around food at the dining table, around artworks in a gallery or navigating around uncertain times in the work place. ”
AYISHA DE LANEROLLE has an MPhil in Community of Philosophical Inquiry from University of Glasgow. This unique course combined academic study with facilitating philosophical dialogue with groups from as young as 4 years old to 104. Drawing on our own lives to engage with each other through our ideas.
The course was run by Dr Catherine McCall who had studied with Matthew Lipman (Philosophy with Children) and appears in the programme Socrates for six year olds. Ayisha completed the MPhil in September 1997, including a dissertation on the connections between what we think and how we feel.
Ayisha now has over 25 years experience in the culture and education sectors. Working on project design, management, delivery and evaluation. She is particularly interested in participatory processes of co-creation and collaboration.
The Conversation Agency provides;
· a space that elicits genuine and attentive listening;
· a contribution structure that brings even tentative voices into play;
· plain jargon-free language that enables understanding
· a dynamic that forges connections between different standpoints
· a safe but challenging space for inquiry that takes you beyond opinion and encourages experimentation with ideas
· the skills to generate, develop and hone ideas together
· a trained facilitator to ensure that all the elements are building properly