The Bureau Blackburn Fun Palace 2022 © Scott David Jackson

Creative Voices, Activist Voices: Sensory Stories of Creative Communities Exhibition
22 August – 12 September 2024
The Albany CaffA, Douglas Way, London SE8 4AG

In 2023, the Centre for Cultural Value awarded Fun Palaces a grant from the Collaborate Fund to explore the radical potential that cultural participation might unlock wider civic activism. Together with sociologist Dr Katy Pilcher, Fun Palaces have been investigating whether communities who make creative and cultural experiences for themselves also create ways to have their needs heard.

The project highlights how communities come together across social divides to share knowledge and create cultural value while also exploring the ways in which cultural participation might unlock wider civic activism, as well as the barriers and social inequalities preventing this from happening.

Drawing upon objects, photographs and videos shared by those who participated in the research project, the exhibition will bring to life the stories of Fun Palaces Makers from across the UK, and where their Fun Palaces led. 

Digital Exhibition Resources:

The exhibition consists of seven boards sharing our findings, you can listen to audio versions of the boards here:

Board 1 Audio:

Board 2 Audio:

Board 3 Audio:

Board 3a Audio:

Board 3b Audio:

Board 4 Audio:

Board 5 Audio:

Please note the people speaking the text may be of a different demographic to the original speaker, we would like to acknowledge that this could be problematic in some ways, and create power imbalances or shift meaning in some circumstances. The original voice recordings from the speakers could not be featured due to anonymity reasons. We felt it was still important to record audio versions of the content of the exhibition in order to make it accessible to those who would benefit from audio recordings.