Creative Voices, Activist Voices

Fun Palaces Director Amie Taylor and sociologist Dr Katy Pilcher from Aston University discuss a collaborative research project.

For 'Creative Voices, Activist Voices: Sensory Stories of Creative Communities', they investigated whether communities who make creative and cultural experiences for themselves also create ways to have their needs heard.

Featuring guests Kerris Casey St-Pierre, Julia Hines and Chery Nguyen.

Recording and editing by Chuck Blue Lowry.

This research project was funded by the Centre for Cultural Value's Collaborate Fund.

About Fun Palaces Fun Palaces is an onging campaign for culural democracy and a weekend of action and celebration, taking place on the first weekend of October every year - during which communities come together to make pop-up Fun Palaces. Cultural democracy is an approach to arts and culture that engages everyone in deciding what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it and who experiences it. Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings co-founded Fun Palaces in 2013 to celebrate reveloutionary theatre director, Joan Littlewood's centenary on the 6th October 2014. As more communities, individuals and organisations across the UK asked if they could join in, it quickly became clear that it was never going to be a one-off. In 2021 Kirsty Lothian and Makala Cheung took over as co-directors of the organisation. Inspired by Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price's never-built 1960s vision of one building for all arts and science, free to the local community of the East End, the 21st century Fun Palaces is about reclaiming public space, encouraging cultural venues to throw open their doors, shining a light on unsung community activism and supporting local people to step up to co-create their own community events. Learning from the communities that take part every year, Fun Palaces has changed and grown, and is now as varied as the people who take part. Find out more at: www.funpalaces.co.uk Follow us on Instagram: @FunPalaces