Belper’s Fun Palace


Its only about six weeks until Belper’s Fun Palace which will take place at Number 28, The Market Place, Belper. The fun will start at 12 noon and finish at 4.00pm. I am writing this blog post to inform everyone about some of the planned activities.

Tan Draig a local artist is aiming to get people to help make the largest string vest in the world. The string vest will be exhibited later in October as part of ‘Belper in Bloomers’ underwear exhibition (to launch on Sat 22 Oct as part of Discovery days) at Number 28. Here is a link to all that is happening during the Discovery Days.Tan

The photo above of Tan was taken at the opening of the “part of the Fabric’ exhibition that he made in Belper’s North Mill. There is a very good account of this piece of work in the Derby Telegraph.

The large string vest will be made by a human knitting machine and Tan will need lots of help to achieve this. This particular activity will take place during the afternoon at 3.00pm. Before this time Tan has promised to enable visitors to join in with a fun mathematic activities.

There will also be creative workshops for people both adults and children to join in with. Marilyn Deakin another Belper artist will be running a collage workshop suitable for all. Here is an example of her work

MDtransitionautumn_cropped2_thumb and much more can be found on her website http://www.marilyndeakincreativeart.co.uk

Marilyn like myself believes that everyone is an artist, these are her words, “ For me its about communication and passing on skills and opportunities for people as I believe everyone is an artist – they just need to find themselves – that is my aim.”She is planning an Autumn collage workshop for the Fun Palace and has sent me this photo, however everyones work will be unique to themselves. leaf collage

There will be a chance for visitors to learn how to perform CPR correctly with help of Amber First Responders. This skill could help you save a life and is worth everyone becoming familiar with.CPR

Here is a link to their Facebook Page and a link to their Twitter Page.

There will be a chance to have a go at making something with stamps thanks to Helen from All Things Stampy. She was one of the first Independent Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators in the UK when it launched in November 2007. She runs workshops and has a website http://allthingsstampy.blogspot.co.uk/ where you can order all you would need to make the most amazing cards etc. This is a fantastic chance to have a first go at making something for free.

image

These activities are a taste of what will be on offer at Belper’s Fun Palace. In about a week I will write about some of the other amazing activities that you can enjoy on October 1st at Number 28.

Here is a picture of how one young person imagines a Fun palace to look, so do come along on October 1st to see for yourself.Fun Palace 1

Fun Palace

Last year I attended my first Fun Palace at Derby Silk Mill Museum. I had not heard about Fun Palaces before but always enjoyed attending activities at the museum. downloadThe original idea for Fun Palaces dates back to 1961 when Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price came up with the idea and designed the Fun Palace which they called a ‘Laboratory of Fun’. Joan said that she believed in the genius in every person and also in the idea of community.

It was to be a temporary and movable home to the arts and sciences, open and welcoming to all. For many reasons it wasn’t possible in 1961 and the Fun Palace never came to fruition as a building. The idea however, of a space welcoming and open to all, bringing arts and sciences together, where everyone is an artist and everyone a scientist, remained a GREAT idea.

The Fun Palace became an annual reality from 2014 when Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings organised the first Fun Palaces throughout the country. The first ones took place on the hundredth anniversary of Joan’s birth. The idea quickly grew to become an event taking place worldwide on the first weekend in October. This year that is October 1st and 2nd.

THE FUN PALACES MANIFESTO

WE BELIEVE IN THE GENIUS IN EVERYONE, IN EVERYONE AN ARTIST AND EVERYONE A SCIENTIST, AND THAT CREATIVITY IN COMMUNITY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER.
WE BELIEVE WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER, LOCALLY, WITH RADICAL FUN – AND THAT ANYONE, ANYWHERE, CAN MAKE A FUN PALACE.

The idea is that it is an event organised by local people for the fun and enjoyment of local people. Here is a short video from 2014 explaining a little more about the idea behind Fun Palaces.

This year I am planning to organise Belper’s first Fun Palace to take place at Number 28 situated on the Market Place Belper.10460502_506304829499772_9086914353426889366_n

The event will take place on Saturday October 1st from 12 noon until 4.00pm.

However the fun begins now with the fun of planning the event. I have just made a comic strip from a link on the Fun Palace website.comic.jpeg

Above is the one that I have made. There is also a Write, Science competition which needs to be completed by the end of this month July 2016.

Planning is already going ahead for Belper’s first Fun Palace which is to be a fun community event for all age groups. I will be writing soon about the activities, however if anyone reading this post has an idea that could be included please get in contact through the comments.

Here are three more comic strips made by my grandchildren just for the fun of it.

GComic IComic NComic