Maker Stories

Makers tell us about making their local Fun Palaces

Unearthing hidden untapped talents and genius

Edwina Osborne made the first Leighton Buzzard Fun Palace in 2021. Now in planning for it’s 3rd year, she reflects on her journey so far, and shares advice on how you too could start a…

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The Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Rupesh Shah had his idea for a Fun Palace during lockdown. The Boulevard of Broken Dreams was borne from a catastrophic day in which he’d been trying to fix a couple of lamps, and no…

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Ideas Grow Like Seeds…

Below you can read a Maker story from Canopy Arts Jab Fun Palace – written by Roger Drury from Canopy Network (‘inspired by Fun Palaces’). “Canopy is a network of arts workers, artists and communities…

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Bringing Back the Fun

Torriano Fun Palace, in North London are huge fans of the work of Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price. Although you don’t need to know a single thing about Joan or Cedric to make a Fun…

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A Fun Palaces Journey

Celine Elliot is the Fun Palaces Ambassador for Cornwall, which she does for one day a week as part of her job at the Cornwall Museums Partnership. In 2018 she made a Fun Palace at…

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Online Fun Palaces

Last year Fun Palaces looked a little different, some were socially distanced, some went ahead online, some took place in the form of window displays and some were a mix of all three. Victoria Beesley…

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Fun Palaces in Care Homes

Ruth Purdy is a visual artist, who set up a community arts company in Cornwall. In 2018 she joined with Astor Court and Devonpart extra care schemes and Nazareth House; part of a retirement village…

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Fun Palacing with XR Farnham

“What is necessary to remember is that as a creative community we can help. We have the resources to communicate issues to participants and we have the skills, knowingly or not, to enact change.” Farnham…

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“Generous, radical creativity in action …”

The “Fun Palace Maker” hat is really helpful as it’s a conversation starter and there is enormous strength in being part of an ever-growing international movement. Emma Rucastle is a theatre director and creative practitioner…

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Handing Over Our Library Space to the Community

We have had some fabulous heart-wrenching, scary, wonderful moments being part of Fun Palaces. And a big part of that was letting go and handing over our library space to the community and saying it’s…

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From Workshops to Fun Palaces Converts

After a training session with Fun Palaces in 2017 we decided to start running Fun Palaces in Hertfordshire and the feedback has been really positive. Shirley Everall has worked for Hertfordshire Libraries for 40 years…

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