Have you ever seen a kids’ eyes when they put their hands on a Van Der Graff generator (one of those shiny metal balls in science museums and Techniquests) and feel their hair slowly starting to stand up on end?
How about the first time you got your Grandma to use a Snapchat filter?
That brief moment of wonder and intrigue and possibility and FUN, that’s where the good stuff happens.
When Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings started Fun Palaces five years ago, they started with the mantra ‘every one an artist, every one a scientist’. They wanted to strip back ideas of what arts and culture and science were – and really who they were for – and see what happened if you created a place, in the middle of towns, where anyone could walk in off the street and watch, play, learn, fall in to chance encounters or just lie down and listen to music.
It’s an idea borrowed loosely from a theatre director and architect duo who set about creating what they called a ‘fun laboratory’, or a ‘university of the streets’ in 1960s London.
The project’s grown to include nearly 400 Fun Palaces taking over venues across the UK for one weekend in October. Jennie Ellerton - who ran Hereford’s first-ever Fun Palace this year - describes the whole sprawling, noble, ambitious endeavour like this:
“The laboratory part is really in my mind about experimenting, about process not product, trying new materials, new ideas, testing out theories, unfinishedness, that DIY aesthetic. It’s about creating something that is creative and spontaneous and sparking ideas and making discoveries.”
Over three days at De Koffie Pot hundreds of people got involved in underground Art in The Dark experiences, MASH Cinema screenings, workshops in everything from kinetic wire sculptures to clay heads to drumming, yoga, shove-halfpenny and painting showcases.
But as brilliant as any Fun Palace weekend can be in opening eyes and shaking things up – what would happen if we could turn Hereford in to one big, 365-day-a-year hive of creativity and ingenuity and art?
What would happen if kids walked to school around kinetic sculptures and Heineken workers drove home past three-storey-high film projections?
Fun Palace Hereford covered its costs and was built on the back of volunteers and the will of interesting people wanting to share interesting things. But if money was no object, how could we turn Hereford in to the kind of place that raised generations who were both artists and scientists, that put community back at the heart of culture, and culture at the heart of the community, and – well – just had a lot more fun?
We asked Jennie. And this is how she would do it:
1. Go big – and get loud.
Hereford needs to publicise that it is a creative hub of activity and shout it out loud.
We would need to hold a huge spectacle – think the poppies exhibition at the Cathedral - every now and then, and run events like Lumiere in the streets of Hereford in the winter.
Use the talents of people like Mash Cinema to create projections throughout the city.
2. Life doesn’t stop at 5.30pm
Run a few 'white nights'.
These are events where you can stay up all night long and go to the cinema, visit a midnight concert in the Cathedral, create a huge communal sculpture or painting, have a few random restaurants in unusual places and arrange for creative encounters around the town where there are street dancers and theatre.
Make Hereford known as the Fun Palace of The Shires.
3. Build it and they will come
First - design and build an interactive space where people could meet, talk, eat, drink, make and create.
It would be a building Hereford could be proud of where people of all ages could come and see contemporary art, where students from HCA could come and work and learn about curation, design and hold their exhibitions so that the people of Hereford can see what local talent we have. There would be a complete mix of creative activities involving all types of arts and culture.
Have a look at Open School East in Margate. It receives funding from the Arts Council to run all sorts of interesting events and ties up with the Turner Gallery to run workshops for locals free of charge. A brilliant lady runs it and people like Jeremy Deller and Jamie Oliver are involved. I saw her in London give a talk and her enthusiasm was infectious which is why she has been so successful creating an alternative, inclusive workspace.
4. Go guerrilla
There are so many artworks that people walk past in Hereford because they are a) used to them and b) they have become forgotten and invisible. Cheer up the art with interesting temporary interventions.
Elgar's dog in Bishop's Meadow could do with a pink collar and a dog bowl and the labyrinth needs to be more interactive - I am sure a game could be played there.
Install a sound piece by the tennis courts in winter of a tennis game being played. Make something interesting out of something that looks so sad with the sagging nets on the grass courts. The half sunk boat could do with some beautiful flapping sails. Guerrilla artwork!!
5. Get creative with what we've got
Take over the top floor of Hereford Railway Station from Network Rail and renovate and turn into artist studios and workshops. Take the art down onto the platform and onto the trains cheering up commuters and tourists and visitors to Hereford.
Give people maps of Hereford showing them the artwork within the City - perhaps create an art trail, invite new artworks to be made and create exhibitions in public spaces so that people notice the art around them.
6. Get down to business, with business.
Concerning use of public spaces and awareness of space - I think people like Hereford BID (the business group who manage High Town) and British Land in The Old Market are trying to keep hold of their shoppers and create more of an experience whilst they visit Hereford. They provide games for kids in the summer like table tennis, giant Jenga and sand play and I noticed there was a man in Maylord Orchards entertaining kids with Lego and other creative activities this summer.
You could start a pilot scheme finding out if various places would be prepared to let their premises for evenings of play, participation, dance, theatre, workshops, films, talks, food, drink and conversation.
Those are all things that people go out anyway for - and if they are free - it may encourage some diversity.
7. Remember that community at the heart of culture line?
The last thing I would say is that realistically one could create some creative Fun Palace community hubs around Hereford.
There are already various places where events could be held on a regular basis - say once a week like the Wick Wednesday project or once a month to start with.
Places I can think of are 'Make' workshop in Plough Lane, Cup Ceramics off Eign Road, the Buttermarket, Hereford College of Art, NMite - all people that profess to want to work with communities and develop local networks. They may be prepared to host an event. Otherwise there are places like church and community halls and venues like Hereford Leisure Centre, including the skate park and the running track.
It would help everyone concerned if there was a directory for the creative industries so that people would know what was going on at any time within the City.
For more on Fun Palaces, visit the national site here - or Hereford's Fun Palace Facebook page here.