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3 – Nearly building a Fun Palace in West Bromwich
‘But what is it for?’ was a question often asked by funders. There has been at least one serious attempt to give physical reality to Joan Littlewood’s vision: The Public, in Sandwell. This huge, multi-disciplinary and interactive community arts centre was imagined by Jubilee Arts, who had been working in this part of the post-industrial…
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2 – A Fun Palace reimagined in Farnham
Farnham is a handsome market town in Surrey, an ancient place with a castle, Roman roads and hill forts. It is 45 miles from Joan Littlewood’s East London, where she fought to build The Fun Palace, but it seems a world away. London changes continually – the Olympic Park has replaced the post-war wastelands where…
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1 – Failing to build The Fun Palace
On 1 & 2 October 2016, almost 300 temporary Fun Palaces were created in Britain, Ireland, France, Norway, Australia and New Zealand, all inspired by the vision of Joan Littlewood. Since 2013, this movement has come from an idea by Stella Duffy, picked up by tens, then hundreds and now thousands of other people. Both the original vision and…
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Participatory art is improvisation
Everyone is interested in participation and community engagement these days. I don’t think there can ever have been so much work done in the field or such varied ideas and approaches. At the European Jazz Conference in Wroclaw (Poland) I’ve met inspiring people from Norway to Lisbon, all working hard to make the music they…
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From personal stories to common humanity: Performance Ensemble
People’s stories have become central to participatory art in a way they simply weren’t 30 years ago. None of my work involved such personal material before a project with mental health service users in 1990. The widespread use of the term ‘life story’ is itself a sign of the growing importance of personal narratives in…
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Alternative ideas of authorship
Libraries are about books; everybody knows that. True enough – but what are books about? Over the past year, Multistory has been working with libraries in Sandwell to present film screenings and photography exhibitions. The films, by Martin Parr and commissioned by Multistory, open windows on worlds most people don’t know. In Mark Goes to Mongolia,…
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François Matarasso 