The Glasshouse

Communities need beginnings. Creativity is often the spark for new connections and communities to form. This is why I love working to make Fun Palaces happen here in the North East.Fun Palaces support local people to co-create their own cultural and community events, across the UK and worldwide, sharing and celebrating the genius in everyone. Fun Palaces Weekend is the first weekend of October every year.

These events exist because people are willing to come along and try something for the first time. As I work to help create these events, I see people in my region exchanging ideas, tips and stories and becoming some sort of community for one another, turning a day or a weekend into something that lasts.

So what is it about Fun Palaces that helps create an atmosphere people don’t want to end?

They’re a place to forge friendships and strengthen casual acquaintances. Fun Palaces invite you to enjoy the freedom of not knowing everything and throw yourself (or even just dip a toe) into something new.

Fun Palace 2023 Gateshead began with Art Diamonds and Gateshead Library filling the building with making and doing. ‘I’ve never done this before’ felt like the phrase of the day. It’s also my number one way to determine how much fun’s going to be had at one of our weekends.

Despite disrupted bus services, people flowed in all day, largely down to generous and last-minute offers of car-pooling. People were introduced by mutual friends. Some were established pals who bonded over the activity they were now leading.

One members’ dear friend had passed away the day before. She brought herself along and embroidered a protest heart, emblazoning her friend’s catchphrase across the middle. She told funny stories about their friendship as people gathered to embroider, and some to just listen and support.

What was really evident on the day was the long-standing commitment the library staff and Art Diamonds have to each other. The Fun Palace event is the perfect excuse to celebrate big projects and smaller ones, secret skills and inspirations that over the years have taken on a life of their own.

Being part of a Fun Palace encourages you to show care, that’s the only way it works. Whilst listening to some lockdown poetry written by members of the group, there was discussion about how relentless people had been in staying busy throughout lockdown. These poems were reminders and glimpses of what memories or feelings came to the surface during this time.

The poems, and scrapbooks and online workshops, to me illustrated just how vital it was to care about something. When everything else fell away, showing you care kept communities going.

An enormous Fun Palace held on a Sunday at St. Joseph’s Church Hall in central Gateshead, brought together a unique mix of ideas, skills and just-for-the-fun-of-it activities. Organised by the Caedmon Choirs Fun Palace subcommittee, every idea had a space on the day. This included seed planting, belly dancing, balloon keepy-uppy’s, clay work, climate protest, and singing in harmony with strangers. It was all anchored by the best thing I’ve ever seen; a human fruit machine.

People could learn why destroying peat is bad for the planet and understand local seasonal veggie growing. We learned that belly dancing was traditionally, unchoreographed and is led by a set of signals. Some learned that when it comes to jewellery making, more is always more. And adults were reminded that you’re never too old to want to stop the balloon touching the floor.

The ethos of the day was to make each activity a taster, something anybody can try. The exchange that takes place between people when there’s no wrong or right answer, no-stakes, no detention, just learning something for the joy of it, is what Fun Palaces is all about.

When we try something new, things can change. Hobbies and secret skills can turn into something that brings people together and builds the self-confidence of everyone involved. Cynthia, a member of had Caedmon Choir’s, taught herself to make origami hearts to decorate her daughter’s wedding. She’s since moved well beyond hearts and this has become a hobby she and her daughter share, something full of meaning and memories for the pair.

Fun Palaces celebrate all of the best bits about being part of a community; connection, care, and sharing ideas that can take flight. It’s a place to create and discover common ground, build something that just lasts a day, or maybe something you hope will last.

Having been part of so many of these events now, the reason I feel like they really matter is that people within communities taking the time to show they care about each other, and want to spend time together, has never been more important. It felt like we all knew that at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. But are we at risk of forgetting?

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music is a community and exists as a space for music lovers and others to experience what happens between people when creativity is the focus. Our partnership with Fun Palaces exists to recognise and enable the good that creativity and inventiveness in all its forms does within a community that nurtures this.