Fun Palaces
{{Short description|Cultural scheme in the United Kingdom}}
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{{Infobox recurring event
| name = Fun Palaces
| logo = Fun Palaces Logo.png
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| status = active
| genre = community movement, grassroots, cultural democracy campaign
| date = First weekend of October (Annual)
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| frequency = Annually
| venue = United Kingdom
| location = National
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| first = {{start date|2014|10}}
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| people = Joan Littlewood, Cedric Price, Stella Duffy
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| website = {{URL|www.funpalaces.co.uk|official website}}
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Fun Palaces is a UK-based movement and campaign promoting cultural democracy through community-led participation in arts, science, and culture. It encourages people and groups to create their own free, hands-on events called Fun Palaces, run by and for local communities across the UK and internationally. The annual Weekend of Celebration, held on the first weekend of October, sees thousands of volunteers and grassroots organisations independently host Fun Palaces to share skills and creativity. The campaign challenges traditional ideas about culture and aims to make arts and sciences accessible to everyone, emphasising inclusivity and collective agency. Inspired by a concept developed by theatre director Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price in the 1960s, the modern Fun Palaces campaign was launched in 2014 by Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings.{{Cite news |last=Thorpe |first=Vanessa |date=2014-05-10 |title=Joan Littlewood's 1961 dream comes true at last |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/she-said/2014/may/10/joan-littlewoods-1961-dream-comes-true-at-last |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news |last=Brown |first=Mark |last2= |first2= |date=2014-07-18 |title=Fun palaces: Joan Littlewood's dream to be realised 100 years after birth |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/jul/18/fun-palaces-joan-littlewood-dream-realised-100-years-birth |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news |date=2014-10-04 |title=Joan Littlewood's 'Fun Palace' idea realised 50 years on |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29479645 |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}
History
= Original Concept (1960s) =
The idea for Fun Palaces originated in 1961 with theatre director Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price, who envisioned creating a single, flexible building where communities could come together to celebrate arts, science, and culture.Their original blueprint described a space where you could:{{Cite news |last=Duffy |first=Stella |date=2014-01-06 |title=Fun palaces: Joan Littlewood's dream for culture gets second chance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2014/jan/06/fun-palaces-joan-littlewood-culture |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |date=2018-09-04 |title=Fun Palaces |url=https://arestlessart.com/co-creation/a-restless-art/case-studies/fun-palaces/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=François Matarasso |language=en}}
{{blockquote|Choose what you want to do – or watch someone else doing it. Learn how to handle tools, paint, babies, machinery, or just listen to your favourite tune. Dance, talk or be lifted up to where you can see how other people make things work. Sit out over space with a drink and tune in to what's happening elsewhere in the city. Try starting a riot or beginning a painting – or just lie back and stare at the sky.|source=|author=Joan Littlewood}}
Inspired by pleasure gardens and working men’s clubs, Littlewood and Price aimed to make culture, science, and education accessible to a broader section of society by creating a venue that encouraged both participation and performance. Despite interest, their plans faced significant obstacles: local authorities refused to donate land, and funding was not forthcoming, so the original Fun Palace was never built.
= Unbuilt Legacy & Influence =
Although the original Fun Palace was never constructed, its radical ideas had a lasting impact on architecture, cultural theory, and community practice. The concept’s emphasis on flexible, participatory design (blurring the boundaries between learning, leisure, art, and science) anticipated later developments in interactive and user-driven architecture.{{Cite web |date=2014-10-03 |title=People’s theatre and fun palaces: the life of Joan Littlewood |url=https://revsoc21.uk/2014/10/03/peoples-theatre-and-fun-palaces-the-life-of-joan-littlewood/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |language=en}}
Elements of the Fun Palace vision were also realised in later projects by Cedric Price, such as the Inter-Action Centre (1971), and in experimental community events led by Littlewood, including the Stratford Fair (1975) and “Bubble City” (1968).{{Cite journal |last=Bonet Miro |first=Ana |date=2016-01-02 |title=Sigma Portfolio and Bubble City: Ludic Sites for a Mobile Fun Palace Program |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20507828.2015.1095051 |journal=Architecture and Culture |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=137–161 |doi=10.1080/20507828.2015.1095051 |issn=2050-7828}}{{Cite journal |last=Littlewood |first=Joan |last2=Croyden |first2=Margaret |date=1969 |title=Joan Littlewood: Interviewed by MARGARET CROYDEN |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41512832 |journal=The Transatlantic Review |issue=33/34 |pages=56–65 |issn=0041-1078}} Over time, the Fun Palace has become a major reference point in academic and architectural discourse, celebrated as a “landmark in 20th-century architectural thought” for its social ambition and innovative approach to public space.{{Cite journal |last=Lovell |first=Jonathan |title=Architecture, Media, Archives: The Fun Palace of Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price as a Cultural Project: by Ana Bonet Miró, London, Bloomsbury, 2024, 240 pp., AU$153 (hardback), ISBN: 9781350345362 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10331867.2025.2461900 |journal=Fabrications |volume=0 |issue=0 |pages=1–4 |doi=10.1080/10331867.2025.2461900 |issn=1033-1867|url-access=subscription }}
The fact that the Fun Palace was never built has contributed to its enduring status as a provocative, utopian ideal in architectural and cultural debates.{{Cite web |last=Mathews |first=Stanley |date=February 2006 |title=The Fun Palace as Virtual Architecure |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227675335_The_Fun_Palace_as_Virtual_Architecture |website=ResearchGate}}
Contemporary Movement
= Modern Revival (2013- present) =
The Fun Palaces concept was revived in 2013,{{Cite web |date=2013-04-05 |title=Fun Palaces 2014 |url=https://stelladuffy.blog/2013/04/05/fun-palaces-2014/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Not Writing But Blogging |language=en}} by writers and producers Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings, inspired by Joan Littlewood's centenary and a renewed interest in community-led culture. The new campaign{{Cite news |last=Duffy |first=Stella |date=2013-09-18 |title=Celebrating Joan Littlewood: it's time to build her fun palaces |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2013/sep/18/theatre-joan-littlewood-culture-fun-palaces |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |title=Pop-up arts weekend launched to celebrate Joan Littlewood birthday |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/pop-up-arts-weekend-launched-to-celebrate-joan-littlewood-birthday |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=The Stage |language=En}}{{Cite web |title=New arts and science festival launched in honour of Joan Littlewood's 100th birthday |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/new-arts-and-science-festival-launched-in-honour-of-joan-littlewoods-100th-birthday |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=The Stage |language=En}} invited communities, venues, and organisations across the United Kingdom - and later internationally - to create their own Fun Palaces. Since 2014, Fun Palaces has become an annual movement each October, with communities independently organising local, free events in a wide variety of spaces.{{Cite web |title=Stella Duffy: 4 ways to make the arts for everyone, not just the chosen few |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/stella-duffy-4-ways-to-make-the-arts-for-everyone-not-just-the-chosen-few |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=The Stage |language=En}}{{Cite web |title=Fun Palaces showcase: How Joan Littlewood was inspired to bring pleasure to the people |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/archive/fun-palaces-showcase-how-joan-littlewood-was-inspired-to-bring-pleasure-to-the-people |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=The Stage |language=En}}
= Leadership =
In 2020, Kirsty Lothian and Makala Cheung were appointed as joint co-directors,{{Cite web |last=Library |first=Co-Leadership |date=2023-03-07 |title=Case study: Fun Palaces |url=https://coleadership.info/f/fun-palaces |url-status=live |website=The CoLeadership Library}}{{Cite web |last=M |first=Theatre |date=2021-04-22 |title=Fun Palaces 2021 launches, welcoming two new co-directors |url=https://www.mrcarlwoodward.com/uncategorized/fun-palaces-2021-launches-welcoming-two-new-co-directors/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Carl Woodward |language=en-US}} reflecting the campaign’s ongoing commitment to collaborative leadership and representation. In 2024, Amie Taylor became Director of Fun Palaces.{{Cite web |last=Hogarth |first=Ruth |date=2024-02-19 |title=Co-Directors of Fun Palaces to step aside - Arts Professional |url=https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/faces/co-directors-fun-palaces-step-aside |access-date=2025-05-15 |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |date=2024-10-17 |title=Radical system change in the workplace - Arts Professional |url=https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/feature/radical-system-change-in-the-workplace-2 |access-date=2025-05-15 |language=en-GB}}
Principles and Ethos
Fun Palaces is grounded in cultural democracy, aiming to remove barriers between professionals and amateurs in arts and sciences. Events are locally organised, free to attend, and based on skill-sharing and participation rather than traditional performance or audience models. As Stella Duffy explains:
"A Fun Palace is not a fete. It’s not about coming along and having a lovely time. It’s not audience development. It’s saying to everybody—you can do this; you already do this. You are allowed to make art and science."
The campaign also seeks to address social isolation, increase wellbeing, and build stronger communities by encouraging intergenerational and cross-cultural connections.{{Cite news |date=2024-10-15 |title=‘Fun Palaces’ sees culturally rich communities fizzing with creativity |url=https://www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/fun-palaces-sees-culturally-rich-communities-fizzing-with-creativity-730362 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241105061053/https://www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/fun-palaces-sees-culturally-rich-communities-fizzing-with-creativity-730362 |archive-date=2024-11-05 |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=The Cornish Times |language=en}} Its principles have been referenced in research on cultural democracy, community development, and participatory arts practice.{{Cite web |last=Rushby |first=Amy |date=2024-11-08 |title=Creative Voices, Activist Voices: exploring the radical potential of cultural participation |url=https://www.culturalvalue.org.uk/creative-voices-activist-voices-fun-palaces/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Centre for Cultural Value |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2018-09-28 |title=Cultural Democracy in Practice - Fun Palaces |url=https://64millionartists.com/cultural-democracy-in-practice-fun-palaces/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=64 Million Artists |language=en-GB}}
Impact and Evaluation
The campaign celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2023, and during that decade they have become a major force in the campaign for cultural democracy.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-23 |title=Community arts should not be segregated from ‘real’ art - Arts Professional |url=https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/article/community-arts-should-not-be-segregated-real-art |access-date=2025-05-15 |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Morris |first=Anita |date=2024-10-16 |title=Fun Palaces reveal culturally rich communities buzzing with creativity |url=https://www.lep.co.uk/community/fun-palaces-reveal-culturally-rich-communities-buzzing-with-creativity-4826423 |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Lancashire Evening Post |language=en}}
In 2023, Fun Palaces partnered with [https://research.aston.ac.uk/en/persons/katy-pilcher Dr. Katy Pilcher] and the [https://www.culturalvalue.org.uk Centre for Cultural Value] on the “Creative Voices, Activist Voices” research project, exploring how cultural participation can drive social change and empower grassroots activism within communities.{{Cite web |title=Empowering voices for radical cultural transformation {{!}} Aston University |url=https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/empowering-voices-radical-cultural-transformation |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=www.aston.ac.uk |language=en}}
“The research has highlighted the importance for participants of what it means to ‘hand over’ your space – of levelling space from the outset, and how people carry this ethos into their wider community activities and activism.”