By Julia Hines, a Maker at Grange Big Local Fun Palace
So, you have decided to make a Fun Palace, and one of your first questions is likely to be “How do you get people involved?” I think you should be asking “How do I get my Fun Palace to look like my community, and how do I include everyone?”
Step 1 – Work out your pitch
Most people don’t know what Fun Palaces are, so you need to explain it to them.
Step 2 – Putting out a general call
I will be honest: putting out an ask to the community at large has not been particularly successful for me. I still think it is worth doing, because it raises awareness, and it means you are inviting everyone to take part. Organise a meet up, to find out more without committing. If you choose to meet in a pub, be aware that people who are Muslim may not come, recovering alcoholics may find it challenging, and older women may feel shy.
Local Facebook groups, WhatsApp, Nextdoor are all worth a try. Lots of schools, especially primary schools, send out weekly email newsletters. Flyers in community centres, libraries, food banks, and street posters, are useful.
Step 3 – The personal approach
This is harder work, but it pays off. There are two kinds of people who say yes: those who want to be part of a Fun Palace, but don’t think they have any skills; and those who you know have things to share, but aren’t confident about what will work. For both of them you need to have some ideas. You need to give them permission to say yes: “Everyone has something they can share”. You need to give them permission to say no. No to the whole idea, and no to your ideas.
I asked a friend, who I knew was a keen amateur archaeologist. I suggested we get a small sandpit and bury some “treasure” in it, for people to find and he could then talk about. He came back and said that was great, but his current passion was whittling wooden spoons with knives and axes. In the end, he came with a wooden apple press, to make fresh apple juice[i].
I approached the local Polish school, and the suggestion I made to them was wycinanki – a kind of folk art that involves paper cutting. They were keen to take part, but felt the thing that represented them best was football.
Being specific, whilst telling people they can reject those ideas, gives people permission to use their imagination. One Fun Palace quote I found helpful was that, if you think of theatres, museums and galleries putting on a beautiful banquet and inviting people in to enjoy it, a Fun Palace is more like a picnic, where you tell everyone the time and the place, and see what they bring to enjoy.
Places to look for participants include local scout groups, faith groups, refugee groups, youth groups, and sheltered housing. Look for your Knit and Natter, gardening club, your local ukelele teacher, amateur dramatics, sports clubs.
Schools are always worth talking to, especially the science teachers, as well as your local university or museum. Keep an eye out for your geeks – we had a man whose hobby was getting parking tickets cancelled, who was popular, and a boy who turned up on the day, who asked if he could bring his coin collection. We found him a table. Google is your friend here – put in what you might want to find, together with your location. We found a great food blogger who showed people how to make Vietnamese Summer Rolls.
Invite local businesses to take part. Architects ran a model-making activity with lollipop sticks. A florist that uses out of date flowers taught people how to make kokodemas – Japanese moss balls like hanging baskets, and boutonnières. A local bakery showed people how to make bagels. But think about the builders, mechanics and cobblers.
Asking the local fire brigade to come along, with an engine for people to explore, is always fun.
Budget
If you truly want to include everyone, you do, in my view, have to offer expenses. If you can’t offer money for the wool, paint, ingredients, then you limit who can step up as a maker, to those who can afford to. In Kind Direct is a good source of stuff you can use, as is Freecycle. Tesco donated felt pens to us once. Your Council may offer some funding, and local businesses may offer some sponsorship. Creating your Fun Palace as volunteers for a local charity, like your local voluntary sector support organisation, can help with insurance, risk assessments, and bring costs down that way. But it is worth having some budget.
It is also worth having free food, or, at least tea, coffee and snacks. Having food for sale will put off people who are worried about pester power from kids when they can’t afford to buy them food. If they come, it ruins it for them to see others eating. If you have budget to blow, hiring an ice cream van to give away free ice cream, is definitely a draw and a source of joy. The simplest, and cheapest, way is to include food-based activities – making damper over a fire pit, icing cupcakes or even biscuits, rolling sushi.
You will find Makers, and you will have fun.
P.S. Don’t panic about funding; you can find out more information on funding your Fun Palace in our toolkit linked here, as well as lots of ideas for sourcing things for cheap and free, and how to make use of what’s already out there.