Organisers of the *Hoxton Creative Health Network share how their many satellite Fun Palaces in East London was the perfect way to bring all the different cultural organisations together in a fun and supportive way. Rachel, Fun Palace Producer, spoke with the group’s organisers, Stuart Cox, Chief Executive, Hoxton Hall and Lucy McMenemy, Cultural Lead, Hackney Council, to find out how the idea came about.

How did you first hear about Fun Palaces?

Lucy: I first found out about Fun Palaces years ago when the campaign started up. On this occasion, it was Stuart’s experience that got me involved.

Stuart: I first found out about Fun Palaces at the launch about 11 years ago at [Theatre Royal] Stratford East. It was only when I went on to my next role at another venue that I thought Fun Palaces would be really great here! I vividly remembered that launch and I leapt to Fun Palaces when thinking about engagement and it worked really well. I did one [Fun Palace] when I came to Hoxton Hall last year, and it worked incredibly well.

Every time I’ve done it, it doesn’t feel like pressure and every iteration has been totally different. Small versions, larger versions it doesn’t matter. Those are the things that I find attractive.   So when those questions come up about how do we engage, or in this case how do we work together and what do we do, I thought of Fun Palaces.

What led you to do this Satellite version of the Fun Palace?

Lucy: We were seeking a way to bring the various network members together to do a collaborative project and showcase what the different members do. I was getting in gear to set up something from scratch then Stuart said, what about Fun Palaces, we can do this within an existing model. It was really brilliant to be able to say to everyone, it’s happening on this date, who’s in? People came forward quite quickly to say they wanted to be part of it.

Stuart: The fact that Fun Palaces has a national reach gives you the feeling of being part of something. One thing I think is really great and is championed through the branding and the communication is that Fun Palaces can be two people, or it could be 200, there’s no pressure you can just enjoy the moment and accept what happens. The act of doing it is a success because you could easily not (do it).

Tell me about the event

Lucy: A couple of organisations (Headway and Cardboard Citizens) did events in the (Hoxton) market. Headway were sharing food they had made and the market had their own craft stall.

Shoreditch Town Hall invited the local organisations that regularly use their free ‘Local Lounge’ space. Fun Palaces gave the groups the chance to put on an event meet each other and chat.  When I went there was a tea dance going on.   

Stuart: There were all sorts of things going on at Hoxton Hall. There was a Japanese female artist collective who were doing an evening here, they did an origami workshop which was hugely popular and a ninja workshop. It’s quite random, but that’s what I love about this.  People got to explore the building, they took over the music space and we had a workshop with a refugee choir and a community-led embroidery group. It was a lovely balance of community-led things from our programme to opening up the spaces.

Lucy: art’otel, did a collage workshop and Autograph Gallery did a workshop recreating images from the photography exhibition in the gallery using scraps of material. People came along and chose an image and dressed themselves as the people in those photos. Then they were photographed next to the original photo. It was a really beautiful project and people where spending hours working on them.

Did it attract different people to the organisations?

Stuart: Fun Palaces is a good one for attracting different people it can be a doorway for people to find out more about what we do. It’s very free, very easy. That does work in terms of bringing new people through the door.

One thing Fun Palaces stipulates is that the events must be free. Does that work? 

Stuart: I see Fun Palace as an opportunity to trial what could potentially be longer-term work, with other community groups. Because it’s free it takes away the pressure and risk you might get with a long-term project. Funding sometimes stops things from happening.

With Fun Palace you just bring what you can, so if your contribution is going to another Fun Palace and volunteering that’s an amazing start. If you can, open your doors, provide space, and ask what can we do here, it’s that sort of collaboration. Sometimes it’s just about an idea, a goal and partnerships and not about self but asking what is the wider need, how can we support another organisation and not just my own.

Fun Palaces don’t put on any pressure for it to be certain numbers, certain delivery, you’re basically saying be free with your ideas about what a Fun Palace is. It goes back to the intention of **Joan Littlewood, her theatre practice was different, it was archaic.  ***Murray Melvin who was at the launch spoke about how Fun Palaces routed back to that. He gave examples of kids playing in ditches, that they were creating their own Fun Palace out of nothing. There’s something political about that and going back to that essence helps our understanding of Fun Palaces.

Fun Palaces is everybody’s! It is about grassroots, culture that is happening in everyday life and people sharing something they love.  Was that evident in the Hoxton Fun Palaces?

Lucy: Yes, Headway epitomised that.  The people sharing food on the market stall often cook, Fun Palaces was just a way of them doing what they normally do in a more public way, with bunting. They were so delighted to talk to people about their food and the pride that came with it showed.

If someone asked you about putting on a Fun Palace what would you say to them?

Lucy: Do it definitely. The framework is incredibly helpful because you have all the marketing support and amazing amount of guidance on your website, it’s incredible.

Stuart: Don’t overthink the result just go with it. It’s really nice to do something where you don’t have to share targets, you can have internal targets like I want to have a really good time or I want to share something, rather than we have to reach this many people.

What’s brilliant about the Hoxton Health Network doing a Fun Palaces is it’s about different organisations connecting and supporting each other, which provides something positive for the organisations as well as being able to put on a Fun Palace.

Lucy: Now we’ve done it as a collective. we want to figure out how we join up more on the day and support each other’s Fun Palaces.

One piece of feedback that came up was that everyone wants to do it again! And people that couldn’t do it last time want to do it next year. We’ll be back!