Each year, Fun Palaces happen in a huge range of venues across the UK, from libraries to museums, to allotments, community centres, cafes and theatres. Some are made by a team of neighbours coming together, some by community groups, and some by cultural or arts venues. For these venues making a Fun Palace can perhaps be a chance to try a different way of working locally, to hand over their venue to the local community, and to lean into a weekend of community-led culture.
Beth Sedgwick has taken the lead on the Oxford Playhouse Fun Palace over the past 4 years. If you’re a cultural venue looking to get involved, here she shares some of her top tips for working alongside your local community to create a Fun Palace.
“I want to make theatre that is for everyone.” Joan Littlewood
Oxford Playhouse has been making annual Fun Palace events in our BT studio for over a decade. In 2024, we welcomed nearly 200 people to our space-themed event. Here are our top tips for putting on your first Fun Palace.
- Vary your activities and experiences. We have always enjoyed the science element of Fun Palaces – after all STEAM is an important new currency in the curriculum! Our Fun Palaces have featured everything from using microscopes to making DNA models. Life is creative so think broadly- it greatly enriches what you might be able to offer.
- Make connections with artists (and scientists!). For me, so much of Fun Palace making is finding fantastic skill sharers for a variety of activities. Several of our facilitators or Makers were discovered to create other projects. Volunteer ushers have also been invaluable in helping to supervise our arts tables. Cast the net wide and keep your eyes open locally.
- Resourcefulness is Key. Utilise free educational resources, particularly if you have a limited budget – don’t be afraid to ask. We have many fantastic cultural organizations where we are. Modern Art Oxford and History of Science Museum have been a few of our fantastic collaborators, which have generously donated materials.
- Create a Curiosity trail/quiz! Every year when producing our Fun Palace, we do a fun interactive quiz, where clues are scattered around. This enables a full engagement with our spaces and can be a meaningful activity for everyone. Breaking down barriers in our performance spaces and helping people to explore our theatre in new ways is very important to us.
- Be participant-led. Our Fun Palaces have mainly been focused on primary-aged kids and their families. It is useful to establish a method that suits your participant needs. We have used feedback books for comments and coloring-in stars to rate our Palaces and help suggest future workshops.
- Encourage the building of a creative tapestry. We found that the community aspect of the event is enhanced by establishing a joint artwork activity that everyone contributes to. For us this has included making a ‘Kindness Sculpture.’ This was displayed in our main offices for a few months afterwards as a visual legacy.
- Learn from Fun Palace events nationally. The Fun Palaces team and fellow makers are a great point of contact and support – I have attended zooms and events that support makers for palaces both big and small. They are always an email away should you need advice or help with marketing. Good luck!
Fun Palaces run a series of FREE workshops through the summer to help you get started.
