An Open Letter to the Fun Palaces Makers of 2015

Dear Fun Palaces Makers 2015

You are brilliant.

In a time of ‘austerity’ – whether you believe in that idea or not – you have created local, community, participative events in villages, towns, cities across the UK, stretching all the way to Australia and to Aotearoa/New Zealand.
You have welcomed people to work with you, whatever their expertise.
You have welcomed in neighbours and strangers to enjoy, to work with, to play with what you created for them.
Many of you have done this on a shoestring budget or no budget at all.
Many of you – artists, scientists, both or neither – have chosen to give your time and energy to create for and with your community. Some of you have done it as part of your work (paid and unpaid), some of you have done it because you simply want to share and make a difference.
Some of you found the journey to the weekend easy, others found it a struggle, others signed up the week before and didn’t even notice there was a journey to be had!
All your journeys are worthwhile, because all of you have created a huge, international shout for culture and for community. Culture that is accessible for all, community that is welcome to join in at every level – as Makers, as players, or simply sitting back and looking at the stars.
Some of you had thousands of people at your events, some of you had tens of people at your events – they were new people and old friends, drawn by the free, the local, the innovative, the transformative and the engaging.
And yes, we know it’s lovely to get hundreds or thousands of people to come along and take part in the Fun Palaces you have worked so hard over weeks and months to create, and we congratulate you on these achievements.
But what really matters is that YOU did the work to create your Fun Palaces.
YOU stepped up and said yes.
YOU gave something to your community.
YOU brought people together
YOU saw the possibility of arts and sciences working together and creating culture for all.
YOU see the genius in everyone – we see the genius in YOU.
Thank you.

Stella, Sarah-Jane, Kirsty, Hannah xx


The campaign for culture* for all for the benefit of community goes on all year.
The next weekend of action is 1st & 2nd October 2016.

*like our friends at the British Science Association, we believe science is culture too.