Can finding your creative voice unlock your civic activist voice? And what potential barriers or social inequalities might limit this?

Creative Voices, Activist Voices saw a collaboration between social justice movement Fun Palaces and Dr Katy Pilcher, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University.

The research partnership, which was supported by the Centre’s Collaborate fund, investigated whether communities who make creative and cultural experiences for themselves also create ways to have their needs heard.

Cardboard palaces and conical hats

Fun Palaces put communities at the heart of cultural production. Their projects are driven by learning from their participants, known as Fun Palace Makers. Central to this approach is a focus on sharing creative skills, making local connections and a belief that building creativity in communities can change the world for the better.

Working with the Fun Palaces team, Katy introduced various methods to draw out rich stories of creative and civic engagement. This included delivering interviews and group storytelling workshops based on sensory-object elicitation. This methodology invited Fun Palace Makers to discuss their experiences through items representing their involvement in a Fun Palace, their wider civic activism or community activities. Objects ranged from a cardboard palace to a collection of Vietnamese conical hats, a plastic tub of slime and recipes for bubble-making.

Research participants noted how collectively partaking in a creative activity, such as holding and speaking about an object, or making something, can break down barriers and open up deeper conversations:

“If your hands are busy and maybe your eyes need to be focused on something, you can talk about things that aren’t so easy when you’re directly looking at someone.”

Research participant

Connecting communities creatively

Fun Palaces were specifically interested in exploring whether coming together in your community to be creative could support people’s wider civic activism.

Participants in the project shared the many ways that Fun Palaces have been ‘catalytic events’ for people becoming more involved in their communities. The project findings demonstrate that engaging in community creativity can lead to individuals finding an activist – or an ‘activating’ – voice, supporting communities to work together towards common goals.

Exploring the barriers

The project also uncovered powerful stories about the impacts on and experiences of individuals navigating racism, class inequality, gendered inequalities and ableism. This revealed the specific barriers and social inequalities that might prevent people from taking part in creative activities in their communities in the first place and therefore limit civic activism being unlocked.

Reflecting on the project, Katy said:

“The research has highlighted the importance for participants of what it means to ‘hand over’ your space – of levelling space from the outset, and how people carry this ethos into their wider community activities and activism.”

Fun Palaces Director, Amie Taylor adds:

“Dr Katy Pilcher’s research has been key in demonstrating the impact of Fun Palaces (and other acts of community creativity) on communities, for us as an organisation it highlights the value of the work, and just how vital it is.”

Activist Toolkit

Drawing on the methods used in the project and the stories of Fun Palace Makers who took part, Fun Palaces and Katy have developed an Activist Toolkit, which includes tips and tools designed to help individuals and communities get creative and find their activist voice.

Research findings were presented through stories, photographs and objects in an exhibition, Creative Voices, Activist Voices: Sensory Stories of Creative Communities, held at The Albany, an arts centre in Deptford in August, with the exhibition also touring to Birmingham and Blackburn.

You can further explore the team’s findings, including extracts from the stories collected and images from the exhibition, on Fun Palaces’ website.

Thanks to Amie Taylor (Fun Palaces) and Dr Katy Pilcher for their contributions to this article.

Photos by Roswitha Chesher.