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.

We want to know if finding your creative voice can unlock your civic activist voice; if you come together with your community to be creative, are you in a better position to rally against inequality, solve the issue of the bins not being collected often enough, or push your local council to address the lack of services in your area? We’re also questioning what the potential barriers or social inequalities might be that prevent this from happening. 

As a social justice movement, Fun Palaces centre communities as cultural producers; we’ve always known that communities are rich with culture, arts and sciences – the Fun Palaces Weekend invites every community to stand up and be counted for their brilliance, culture and creativity. Together with sociologist Katy Pilcher, we are investigating whether communities who make creative and cultural experiences for themselves also create ways to have their needs heard. The project will highlight how communities come together across social divides to share knowledge and create cultural value while also exploring whether cultural participation might unlock wider civic activism.

Katy has been talking to Fun Palaces Makers about their experiences of making Fun Palaces and to see if there have been further outcomes. Here, she reflects on the process of collaborating with us, and on the research so far:

“It has been really exciting to work together with the Fun Palaces team and Makers themselves in this project. I’ve learnt so much through interviews with Makers and spending time with the Fun Palaces team and Ambassadors at their action research events about the power of positioning everyone as an artist. The research has highlighted the importance for participants of what it means to ‘hand over’ your space – of levelling space from the outset, and how people carry this ethos into their wider community activities and activism. 

Within interviews, I invited Makers to bring with them items that represent their involvement in a Fun Palace (e.g. something they made at a Fun Palace, a photograph, something that conveys the atmosphere of the day, or something else!), and/or something related to their wider civic activism/community activities/activism. This sensory-object elicitation has facilitated some fascinating discussions about how talking while showing something or ‘doing something’ with your hands can break down communication barriers and open up different conversations. It has also led to discussions around the significance of creative activism on people’s lives, as well as the barriers to cultural participation and activism. Research participants have shared powerful stories about the impacts of, and their experiences of navigating, racism, poverty and class inequality, gendered inequalities, and ableism, and the barriers these pose to creative and cultural activation. 

We have more exciting developments in the research coming up, including our storytelling group workshops, co-created with Makers in two locations in the UK, and I’m really looking forward to seeing all of the amazing objects, photos and creations from our participants coming together in our exhibition in August.” 

The research project will be completed by the end of August and we plan to share the stories and ideas collected in a number of ways, including a podcast, an activist toolkit (which will be available on the website), and an exhibition at The Albany arts centre in Deptford (where the Fun Palaces office is based). The exhibition will be housed here until mid-September 2024. 

You’ll be able to find it in CaffA, the cafe at The Albany, so if you happen to be in South London from 21st August, you can pop down to have a look (let us know if you’re coming on a Tuesday, there’ll be a good chance at least one of us will be in the office to say hello). And let us know if you’d like to attend the launch on the evening of Wednesday 21st August and we’ll send an invite (it will be ticketed as we do have a maximum number allowed). 

Following this, the exhibition will be on tour. If you have a venue that could house it for a time, do get in touch!