Fun Palaces: Creativity at the Heart of Community
Stella Duffy, writer, actor and co-director of Fun Palaces on the life-changing importance of providing access to culture and creativity for all
I am no longer a ‘full-time writer’. I’m not sure I ever was, even when I was working on my first novel back in 1991: I was also an actor, an improviser, and an understudy in the West End. Ten years, six novels, several dozen short stories, a few plays and one cancer later I was a writer, an actor, an improviser and a director. Fifteen more years, another cancer, another half-dozen books, more plays, more stories, and I started Fun Palaces. I thought it might be a one-off; I was wrong. Over just two weekends, in 2014 and 2015, 5,262 people have created 280 local events in their own communities, using arts and sciences, crafts and technologies to bring people together, and 90,000 people have taken part. Culture as a catalyst for community, culture as our engine.
I didn’t grow up knowing I could be an artist. Growing up working class in the ’60s and ’70s meant I thought that other people, posh people, were writers, actors, directors.
I only ever wanted to tell stories and yet I have, inadvertently, become part-time co-director of a national, and increasingly international, campaign for creativity at the heart of community, with annual events attended by thousands. I still write about half of my time and comfort myself with the thought that some of the finest authors – Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Trollope – famously had ‘proper’ jobs and wrote around that work. (Perhaps having less writing time will make me a better writer!)
I didn’t grow up knowing I could be an artist. Growing up working class in the ’60s and ’70s meant I thought that other people, posh people, were writers, actors, directors. In my family, we didn’t know about drama school or university or getting an agent, we knew about earning enough to pay the bills and getting on as best we could.
27% of the Fun Palaces last year took place in libraries. Despite the heartbreaking number of library closures across the UK, libraries remain community hubs…
It wasn’t meeting a famous author or seeing a glorious piece of theatre that changed my life – neither were available to me growing up – it was meeting someone like me who was an actor. His father worked at the same mill as mine, he was from my small town, his family were not dissimilar to ours. Someone like me working in the arts is what changed my life. Sadly, we still live in a world that preferences the affluent and the privileged in the arts. Dr Dave O’Brien and colleagues have done a great deal of research showing that the world of arts and culture, and careers in culture in particular, are still enormously affected by class, poverty and race. Writers might like to note the particularly depressing figure for publishing – 43% of those working in publishing come from a privileged background, compared with 14% of the population as a whole.
We hope that Fun Palaces can help a little with this massive problem of inequality in culture, that we can offer one way into creativity – not just as audience or consumer, but as curator, creator. We encourage people of all ages to try something new or to return to a long-forgotten passion, to celebrate creativity as part of daily life, and to join in doing so in their own community. We aim to encourage everyone to engage with arts and sciences, crafts and technologies – both for their own sake, and because doing so with neighbours, with local people we might not already know, is a great way to foster community spirit. We believe that culture belongs to everyone – not just as consumers, but as creators as well. We also know that there is ‘culture’ everywhere, in every community, already. It may not be trumpeted in the broadsheets, it may not be what is usually subsidised by our main funding bodies, it may not be ‘high art’ – but it is creativity.
At base, the Fun Palaces campaign is about people getting to know each other better – sharing stories – which is why it’s no surprise to us that 27% of the Fun Palaces last year took place in libraries. Despite the heartbreaking number of library closures across the UK, libraries remain community hubs, places where we can discover the stories, share the stories, about who we are, what we are, why we are. And, hopefully, in sharing our enthusiasm, our passions, we can help each other build better communities, creative communities, connected communities – so that culture and creativity are not just for an elite, but truly for all. The more of us making this change, the better.
If you’d like to join in, check out our short film, or get in touch.
Stella Duffy is an award-winning writer with over 50 short stories, 10 plays, and 13 novels published in 15 languages. She has twice won the Crime Writers Association (CWA) Short Story Dagger and twice won Stonewall Writer of the Year. She has worked in theatre for thirty-five years as an actor, director, playwright, and facilitator. She is co-director of Fun Palaces. Her latest novel London Lies Beneath will be published by Virago in October.
