Fun Palaces Fun Palaces

This edition of the Fun Palaces podcast looks at the work of Fun Palaces veterans, the Auchinleck Community Development Initiative (ACDI), Scotland.  Ruari Gordon, Fun Palaces Ambassador at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, and former resident of Auchinleck, visited the group earlier this year to find out how the organisation’s work with the community in this former mining village in East Ayrshire has affected the lives of the people who live there, and how they have engaged with Fun Palaces to bring everyday creativity to the fore.  
 
Hailing from Auchinleck, Ruari was particularly interested to see how ACDI had managed to support the community of Auchinleck in the face of the significant economic and social pressures felt in so many post-industrial areas over the last few decades.  
 
ACDI team members Stuart Mitchell, Rachel Alexander and Leon Brownlie offered their insights into the role of culture in places like Auchinleck, and expanded on how they bring the ethos of Fun Palaces into their everyday operations.  We also hear from a number of Auchinleck residents, who tell us in their own words just what Auchinleck is known for.
 
About Fun Palaces
Fun Palaces is an onging campaign for culural democracy and a weekend of action and celebration, taking place on the first weekend of October every year - during which communities come together to make pop-up Fun Palaces. Cultural democracy is an approach to arts and culture that engages everyone in deciding what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it and who experineces it. 
 
Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings co-founded Fun Palaces in 2013 to celebrate reveloutionary theatre director, Joan Littlewood's centenary on the 6th October 2014. As more communities, individuals and organisations across the UK asked if they could join in, it quickly became clear that it was never going to be a one-off. In 2021 Kirsty Lothian and Makala Cheung took over as co-directors of the organisation.
 
Inspired by Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price's never-built 1960s vision of one building for all arts and science, free to the local community of the East End, the 21st century Fun Palaces is about reclaiming public space, encouraging cultural venues to throw open their doors, shining a light on unsung community activism and supporting local people to step up to co-create their own community events. Learning from the communities that take part every year, Fun Palaces has changed and grown, and is now as varied as the people who take part. 
 
Find out more at: www.funpalaces.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @FunPalaces
Follow us on Instagram: @FunPalaces
 

In this podcast, we meet librarian Zoey Dixon who will tell you all about why Fun Palaces are so perfect suited to libraries. 
 
About Fun Palaces
Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings co-founded Fun Palaces in 2013 to create a celebration of Joan Littlewood's centenary on the 6th October 2014. As more communities, individuals and organisations across the UK asked if they could join in, it quickly became clear that it was never going to be a one-off.
 
Developed from Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price's never-built 1960s vision of one building for all arts and science, free to the local community of the East End, the 21st century Fun Palaces is about reclaiming public space, encouraging cultural venues to throw open their doors, shining a light on unsung community activism and supporting local people to step up to co-create their own community events. Learning from the communities that take part every year, Fun Palaces has changed and grown, and is now as varied as the people who take part. 
 
In the UK and beyond, Fun Palaces are happening in lots of different shapes and sizes - in garden in Orkney, on streets and parks in London, on a village fence post in North Wales, a canal towpath in Sheffield, a travelling wheelbarrow in Mansfield, and even on a boat off the coast of Cornwall. 
 
Thanks for listening to the Fun Palaces podcast. If you like what you hear please do subscribe to it and also rate and review us. 
 
Credits: 
Find out more at: www.funpalaces.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @FunPalaces
Follow us on Instagram: @FunPalaces
Producer: Dan Vo 
Editor: Samuel Gunn
Guests: Zoe Dixon

In this fifth podcast, host Dan Vo explores Tiny Changes, one of the core aspeects of Fun Palaces.
 
He'll speak with Carine Osmont in Farnham and Rizia Ali from the Boundary Estate in London about the tiny changes they've seen in their communities and in themselves in their time with Fun Palaces. 
 
About Fun Palaces
Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings co-founded Fun Palaces in 2013 to create a celebration of Joan Littlewood's centenary on the 6th October 2014. As more communities, individuals and organisations across the UK asked if they could join in, it quickly became clear that it was never going to be a one-off.
 
Developed from Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price's never-built 1960s vision of one building for all arts and science, free to the local community of the East End, the 21st century Fun Palaces is about reclaiming public space, encouraging cultural venues to throw open their doors, shining a light on unsung community activism and supporting local people to step up to co-create their own community events. Learning from the communities that take part every year, Fun Palaces has changed and grown, and is now as varied as the people who take part. 
 
This year the emphasis was on tiny Fun Palaces - safe, socially-distanced, with community connection at their heart - and how anyone can get involved - even now. 
 
Thanks for listening to the Fun Palaces podcast. If you like what you hear please do subscribe to it and also rate and review us. 
 
Credits: 
Find out more at: www.funpalaces.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @FunPalaces
Follow us on Instagram: @FunPalaces
Producer: Dan Vo 
Editor: Samuel Gunn
Guests: Rizia Ali and Carine Osmont

Today it's a Fun Palaces conversation between Kirsty Lothian and Makala Cheung the new co-directors of Fun Palaces. It's a podcast that pairs with the episode with Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings, picking up where they left off and giving us an idea of their vision for the future. But still asking, "What would Stella and Sarah-Jane do?"! 
 
About Fun Palaces
Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings co-founded Fun Palaces in 2013 to create a celebration of Joan Littlewood's centenary on the 6th October 2014. As more communities, individuals and organisations across the UK asked if they could join in, it quickly became clear that it was never going to be a one-off. Recently Kirsty Lothian and Makala Cheung became co-directors of the organisation.
 
Developed from Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price's never-built 1960s vision of one building for all arts and science, free to the local community of the East End, the 21st century Fun Palaces is about reclaiming public space, encouraging cultural venues to throw open their doors, shining a light on unsung community activism and supporting local people to step up to co-create their own community events. Learning from the communities that take part every year, Fun Palaces has changed and grown, and is now as varied as the people who take part. 
 
This year Fun Palaces will run again in October. Get involved by registering your Fun Palaces event now.
 
Thanks for listening to the Fun Palaces podcast. If you like what you hear please do subscribe to it and also rate and review us. 
 
Credits: 
Find out more at: www.funpalaces.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @FunPalaces
Follow us on Instagram: @FunPalaces
Producer: Dan Vo 
Audio mix: Lewis Campbell
Music mix: Samuel Gunn
Guests: Kirsty Lothian and Makala Cheung.

Today it's a Fun Palaces conversation between Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings as they prepare to step down as co-directors and say farewell (although it's really not goodbye forever!). 
 
About Fun Palaces
Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings co-founded Fun Palaces in 2013 to create a celebration of Joan Littlewood's centenary on the 6th October 2014. As more communities, individuals and organisations across the UK asked if they could join in, it quickly became clear that it was never going to be a one-off.
 
Developed from Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price's never-built 1960s vision of one building for all arts and science, free to the local community of the East End, the 21st century Fun Palaces is about reclaiming public space, encouraging cultural venues to throw open their doors, shining a light on unsung community activism and supporting local people to step up to co-create their own community events. Learning from the communities that take part every year, Fun Palaces has changed and grown, and is now as varied as the people who take part. 
 
This year the emphasis was on tiny Fun Palaces - safe, socially-distanced, with community connection at their heart - and how anyone can get involved - even now. 
 
Thanks for listening to the Fun Palaces podcast. If you like what you hear please do subscribe to it and also rate and review us. 
 
Credits: 
Find out more at: www.funpalaces.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @FunPalaces
Follow us on Instagram: @FunPalaces
Producer: Dan Vo 
Editor: Samuel Gunn
Guests: Peter Lower, Yvonne Marjo, Ruth Murray, Degna Stone.
Made with help from: Stella Duffy, Sarah Jane Rawlings, Ravina Bajwa, Kirsty Lothian and Daniel King.

In this second podcast, host Dan Vo explores Tiny Connections, one of the core aspeects of Fun Palaces.
 
He'll speak with Degna Stone in Newcastle, Ruth Murray from New Mills and Yvonne Marjo from the Isle of Mull in Scotland about how they got involved with the Fun Palaces weekend with A Manifesto of Tiny Commitments. We also meet Peter Lower from Chippenham who we'll unwittingly take on a journey to write his own manifesto!
 
About Fun Palaces
Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings co-founded Fun Palaces in 2013 to create a celebration of Joan Littlewood's centenary on the 6th October 2014. As more communities, individuals and organisations across the UK asked if they could join in, it quickly became clear that it was never going to be a one-off.
 
Developed from Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price's never-built 1960s vision of one building for all arts and science, free to the local community of the East End, the 21st century Fun Palaces is about reclaiming public space, encouraging cultural venues to throw open their doors, shining a light on unsung community activism and supporting local people to step up to co-create their own community events. Learning from the communities that take part every year, Fun Palaces has changed and grown, and is now as varied as the people who take part. 
 
This year the emphasis was on tiny Fun Palaces - safe, socially-distanced, with community connection at their heart - and how anyone can get involved - even now. 
 
Thanks for listening to the Fun Palaces podcast. If you like what you hear please do subscribe to it and also rate and review us. 
 
Credits: 
Find out more at: www.funpalaces.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @FunPalaces
Follow us on Instagram: @FunPalaces
Producer: Dan Vo 
Editor: Samuel Gunn
Guests: Peter Lower, Yvonne Marjo, Ruth Murray, Degna Stone.
Made with help from: Stella Duffy, Sarah Jane Rawlings, Ravina Bajwa, Kirsty Lothian and Daniel King.