The Fun Palace weekend follows Joan Littlewood’s dream. But our own version of the Greek agora in villages, less shiny cities, estates or prisons would be truly radical In 1961 Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price wrote of a venue where you could “choose what you want to do or watch someone else doing it. Learn how to handle tools, paint, babies, machinery, or just listen to your favourite tune. Dance, talk or be lifted up … sit out over space with a drink and tune in to what’s happening.” Their venue, the never-built Fun Palace, was a place where art and people would come together, where all of us would be encouraged to imagine ourselves as artists, to dream ourselves into creating more, making a difference. Imagining a cultural venue that was as much about people as it was about the work was radical then – and apparently it is still brave now. Tate Modern has just announced that only 24% of its new Switch House will be gallery space, with the remainder open to the public, yet Chris Dercon, the Tate Modern director, said that choosing to create a “space for conversation” has puzzled some of his colleagues. Continue reading...
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