Brownian Motion – A Love Story from Cornwall

Jack Morrison is one of the two Fun Palaces Ambassadors for Cornwall. Jack works with FEAST and Chloe Hughes with Cornwall Museums Partnership and they share the Ambassador role, working within and from their own organisations. Like all of our Ambassadors, they are passionate about the communities they work with because they are of those communities. Here’s Jack’s take on community, measurable outcomes, and home.

I am one half of the Ambassador Team for Fun Palaces in Cornwall.
Being an Administrator is not something that comes easily.
I feel like my own life is such a riot of chaos how can I ever advise others?

My desk is a mess.
I can’t find it in myself to clear back these interconnected things.

Two pairs reading glasses.
Cornwall Council’s Framework for Developing an Events Strategy.
Map: King’s Cross Station in London.
Tea spoon.
Cornish Recipes Ancient and Modern by Edith Martin.
Three Business cards.
Pencil.
Fountain pen.
Green clip for holding food bags closed.
Tankard: ‘Not Just For Sailors’ written on it.
Report: Cultural Venues of Cornwall.
Yellow Post it: short message, seems to be urgent.
Pink Post it: Deadline written in capitals on it.
Cornish Feasts and Folklore: M A Courtney.
Hard drive, disconnected.
Diary.
Rubber band.

All I can tell you is my quality of life suffers should any of them be removed.
I feel safe that all these things are here.
Each one of them is useful to me.

I work in Arts Administration, it’s a desk job, part time but the only job I have, so if I am not parenting I am sitting here.
I am the Ambassador for Fun Palaces and I work with artists and communities.
I collate statistics, numbers, spreadsheets, charts, infographics and data.
I monitor, discuss, dissect, and weigh up projects every day.

Which when I read it back it sounds a little dull.
I don’t mind a dull job, like many people I have had my fair share of repetitive or impersonal jobs to do.
But this is not repetitive or impersonal, the work we do is extremely personal and each event, project and day is unique.
I talk to all manner of bright and beautiful people from all walks of life. They talk about all the things that make life worth living.
Actually they usually they ask a little bit about Fun Palace advice or assistance and I might have quite a quiet life if that was where it stopped.
I ask them why they want to run a Fun Palace or why they started their project and almost every time the call explodes with talk about community, friendship, hardship, change, loss, hope, dreams and love.

Most people just want to live in a safe, beautiful place, a place where they can feel useful.
People who call me up are working towards that in one form or another, that’s the brilliant thing about Fun Palaces.
I speak to people who want to make their home, community, world a better place

Even the Administration Language hides the beautiful truth.

When people say ‘Work’ but they mean ‘life’.
‘Project Locations’ are ‘home’.
‘Measurable Outcomes’ means ‘love’ in another language.
So if I give myself over to a clean desk, to forms and numbers, to evaluation and statistics, I run the risk of being at work, not at home, not part of the community, not part of my community for six working hours.
And the thing is that I am part of this Community, this Country, this World and I should be working hard to make it a better place.

Just like all the people who make Fun Palaces.
People look at my desk and see a mess.
I think it’s beautiful.
I think it’s safe.
I think it helps me feel useful.

It’s my home and people are welcome to come round any time.

We can talk about changing the World, one Fun Palace at a time.