Fun Palaces is an ongoing campaign for community at the heart of culture and culture at the heart of every community. Fun Palaces is all about local people co-creating their own cultural and community events, sharing and celebrating the genius in everyone. Every year thousands of people make Fun Palaces for their own local community – sharing skills, meeting new people, creating connections. See more at https://funpalaces.co.uk/
For the past six years, Fun Palaces Makers have shown us what it means to connect in community and why it matters to them. And libraries across Hertfordshire have been venues for local people to share their skills, knowledge and passions. But this year it will be different.
2020 is different in many ways. Some of us have been ill, some have lost loved ones, many have worked right on the front line of caring and connection, we’ve all been worried or anxious at times. And we have seen our communities step up and take care of each other. We have made small connections locally that have turned into friendships. We have seen strangers looking out for each other – we have been the strangers looking out for each other.
This year, in response to Covid-19, there will be extra-small, hyper-local Fun Palaces. 1,000 Tiny Fun Palaces - A shared creation made by three neighbours along a wall, a seed swap in your street, a drumming lesson from a balcony window, six people socially-distanced in a park teaching each other a 45-minute dance or yoga or fitness sequence, a neighbourhood co-writing a story in chalk on the pavement. Or Digital Fun Palaces - a knitting tutorial on Facebook live, writing a shared poem on Twitter, sharing art on Instagram, or holding a dance-off via video conference. Whether offline or online, the key is to share skills, knowledge, something beautiful, something safe; that it is public (passers-by taking part is great) and makes a connection (encouraging others to do as well as enjoy what you’ve done). This can make a genuine difference in the life of your local community.
Look out for suggestions of creativity for adults and children and simple ideas for community engagement on the libraries social media pages – both the Hertfordshire Libraries pages and those of many local libraries. Join in – it’s fun and it’s free and it will create essential new community connections. #FunPalaces