Leigh Fun Palace

“We believe in the genius in everyone, in everyone an artist and everyone a scientist, and that creativity in community can change the world for the better.”

- Fun Palace manifesto

What is a Fun Palace?

Fun Palaces is a national campaign that encourages & supports local people to co-curate events over the space of a weekend. Connecting communities, by celebrating all kinds of art, traditions & skills. This year Leigh hosted its first fun palace! One of 364 fun palaces that took place over 11 nations.

Who are we?

We are small team of community volunteers who heard about fun palaces & decided to come together to create our own weekend of fun & explore how we could bring people together through arts, culture & skill sharing. Something which felt particularly relevant at this time. Using the turnpike as our hub and with the help of the team, our families & the community, we were able to make this a reality.

What happened?

From Short films to soup. We tried to create activities for a range of ages & interests.

We ensured that there were also some online activities to include those who may have been shielding or self-isolating, with Bedford Arts hosting an online art exhibition to celebrate student work, a local photographer sharing their portfolio & nature activities to try at home with the kids. On the weekend, Books were swapped, soap was made & seeds were shared. Leigh film screened some silent films, the children enjoyed an alphabet trail and we took our fun palace into the community by sharing soup with the homeless.

Leigh Fun Palace volunteers
credit - livialazar.com

Whats next?

Now we are on the fun palaces map, we are looking forward to next year. We would love to create another fun palace and improve upon what we have learnt this year to share even more skills and connect with more people. Hopefully we won’t have the same restrictions brought about this year and will be able to incorporate more interactive activities for the community to enjoy.

If you want to be involved in Leigh Fun Palace 2021! Please get in touch, share your ideas and have a chat with us. at leighfunpalace@gmail.com

words

Sophie Strain (Fun Palace volunteer)

images

Livia Lazar (photograph), Fun Palace website (graphic)