Want to Make a Fun Palace in 25 Days or Less?!

Interested in making your own Fun Palace – even with just a few weeks to go?

GREAT! It’s totally do-able.

Here are five tips for making your own local Fun Palace, bringing your community together – and supporting anyone and everyone to take part.

  1. Check out the Maker section here on the website – we have short films of Makers talking about what they did in their own communities in other years; a toolkit with everything from a template press release to a template risk assessment form (feel free to steal these for other events); downloadable posters and flyers – or you can ask us to send you flyers and posters for your Fun Palace.
  2. Ask your neighbours about their ‘secret skill’. Not necessarily what they do for a living, but something they’re excited by, enthusiastic about – does someone in your block paint watercolours? Does someone in your street whittle? Is there a neuroscientist living on the corner? A tap-dancer? Beekeeper? Is there an older people’s cheerleading group who can teach cheers? A ten-year-old who wants to share their Minecraft skills with adults and other kids? ALL of these things have happened at a Fun Palace – when we’re all in the same space, playing at different things, people begin to have different conversations, we learn from each other and have a chat while we do so.
  3. Adults are allowed to play too! It’s great that many venues and organisations are becoming more family-friendly, but what about the 15-year-old who really doesn’t want to hang around with mum and dad? The 76-year-old who wants their own chance to PLAY? What about the parents who stand behind the children having a great time at the craft table and want to join in? Fun Palaces activities are for all ages, led by all ages.  NB – enough with the (ordinary) facepainting! Children are ‘done to’ so often – why not give them the facepaints to paint the adults and each other? Or grab an anatomy book and let them paint everyone’s femurs and tibias, arteries and veins on the outside. Arts and science at once!
  4. Free. Keep it free. Last year 71% of Fun Palaces needed no extra money to make their Fun Palace. Many Fun Palaces pride themselves on being sustainable and eco-friendly by only using donated materials for their craft and kitchen science experiments.
  5. Have fun. Seriously. Fun Palaces are tiny revolutions, they show that culture – arts, science, craft, tech, digital, heritage, sport – belong to everyone and everyone can take part. And that taking part, joining in a task or activity, can be a great way to have a conversation. It’s tough to sit down and have a chat with a stranger, it’s easier to chat with the stranger who’s teaching you how to knit. They are silly, messy, often chaotic and almost always exhausting – a quiet space or even just a quiet corner is also very welcome in a Fun Palace. Other than that, make it your own.

And make sure to SIGN UP! Otherwise we won’t know you’re taking part …

If you have any questions get in touch. We usually work Wednesdays and Thursdays but in the run-up weeks we do our very best get back to you as fast as we can!