Below you can read a Maker story from Canopy Arts Jab Fun Palace – written by Roger Drury from Canopy Network (‘inspired by Fun Palaces’).
“Canopy is a network of arts workers, artists and communities based in the Forest of Dean. Set between the Rivers Severn and Wye the Forest is a series of small towns with a population of 80,000 spread across 200 square miles (and 20 million trees). The notion of becoming part of Fun Palaces came up when we were planning to run a village event in Bream funded by the West Dean Parish Council- Our first meetings, subject to Covid concerns were in a Barn on Noxon farm.
The ideas grew like seeds bringing many different groups together, in the summer we ran a stall at the Flower show, now over 150 years old, to begin awareness. The Arts Jab event included as many arts as would fit and attracted around 500 locals of all ages and sizes.
This film captures a flavour of the day and we have learned a lot so our next project will take this skeleton to help launch a new arts centre ‘The Wesley’ in a church on Cinderford High St which the members have handed over to become a community space.”
This poem is a reflection of that first Fun Palace, a list, a story, another approach to collecting data…
Bringing in the Rain
Roger Drury
27/1/2022
Canopy Arts Jab Fun Palace
Forest of Dennis Potters dreams
Bream Largest Village in England
Tree heaven space to place
showers shift us undercover to sing harmonies
renew redo red clay planet
Nothing’s far but everyone lives a distance
rescue schools having the arts sucked out of them
Raising banners banging drums
history underfoot and falling with the autumn leaves
community centres boasting with culture
Male Voice choir re formed for home town gig
‘Land between two rivers’
sung loud and with great passion
Camera club and 300 faces in same room
felt and folksongs kids and grannies
Rewilders and printmakers
hand to hand cake to cake
October downpour of people and rain
I saw a man dressed as a Jackdaw tease a poem from a poets mouth
And a raffle -’Local councillor gives £50 QUID PRIZE’
Another Potter donates a glorious candle stick
Community holds onto its library-clouds of books
writers trying to keep up – readers trying to slow down
Lots of planning passing ideas like pebbles
to make it this single day…I think it’s a yes
all shapes and surprises
..it will last a long time
Canopy Arts Jab Fun Palace
Forest of Dennis Potters dreams
Bream Largest Village in England
Tree heaven space to place
renew redo red clay planet
Nothing’s far but everyone lives a distance
rescue schools having the arts sucked out of them
praise the Flower show for lasting 150 years
Raising banners banging drums
