An invitation from Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings,

What is a Fun Palace?

Based on Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price’s 1961 idea, it is a welcoming, inclusive space sharing arts, sciences and learning. It’s fun. It might have music, theatre, lectures, dance, tutorials, playing, sitting down, lying back – whatever you want. It is created with and for local people, for all ages. It is free, with public engagement at its heart. It can happen in a village square, a theatre foyer, a museum corridor, a school canteen, it might take over an entire venue or a street, it might be a small tent in a field. Every Fun Palace will be as unique as the people making it and its locale.

More about Fun Palaces : www.fun-palaces.com

Why have we been working for free on this project since January?

Because between us we’ve been working in the arts for over fifty-five years and we’d hoped it would be different by now. Because we still believe culture can change the world. Because we know the economic realities and the politics and the just-keeping-going are exhausting, all of us working so hard in our own way – maybe it’s time to do something TOGETHER. We need you in this campaign with us. Many of us believe that arts and culture could do more. That the arts and sciences could work together better than we do now. That it’s time for a culture of share, not show. The Fun Palaces weekend will give us a chance to stand up for culture and shout about it as the heart of our communities. And that weekend will lead to change, to the goal many of us already have – of full engagement, of true inclusivity, of the difference being made. (And six months before the next general election is quite a good time to shout – yes?)

What will we do on 7th October 2013?

There are already over 150 theatres, arts centres, companies, organisations and individuals signed up to be part of the project. This is our chance to work out what we want our Fun Palaces to be, how we can help each other, how we can feed our brilliant, collective ideas, and begin to take concrete action toward making them happen, and how we might link our Fun Palaces – both digitally and physically. It is also an opportunity to see who isn’t in the room and who else we need to invite.

And it’s a chance to talk about the things that haven’t even occurred to us yet.

We expect there will be several people at the Open Space who worked with and knew Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price, so it’s also an opportunity to find out more about the original idea, what we can take from it, where we might diverge for the 2014 versions.

What is Open Space?

At an Open Space event, the agenda is called on the day by the participants, nothing is off the agenda, and all ideas and issues raised will be dealt with, by those in the room, as long as there is interest in doing so. (And just like in a Fun Palace, the interest of one person is as valid as the interest of all!) A document with reports from all the discussions will be created, during the event, and shared openly with anyone interested.

More about Open Space : http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace