Fun House Festival returns to St. Mary in the Castle

This summer St Mary in the Castle will once again play host to the Fun House Festival – an immersive event offering an array of arts and crafts workshops designed for kids and their families to have fun, relax and express their creativity. HOT’s Jordan Dixon writes.

The Fun House Festival will return Friday 23 August and will be spilt into two sessions to ensure families have the chance to experience everything on offer. The morning session will run from 9:30am to 13:00pm and the afternoon from 13:30pm to 5pm.

The event is the fruit of the newly formed Fun House Arts CIC who have collaborated with a number of brilliant artists and groups to offer youngsters the opportunity to demonstrate and explore their creative potential.

Featured artists and activities will include the Amazing Art Cart and their versatile mobile art station and Theatre Rotto, which will be delivering a series of fascinating performances and workshops through out the day. Little Mashers will offer children the chance to work with specialist equipment and create wonderful prints. The Hastings-based ceramic studio Common Clay, run by Carla Wright, will also present a new and exciting session where children will be able to create their own ceramic forest.

Access to the arts

The festival is part of Fun House Arts’ overall vision t0 develop a longer-term programme of work all year around. While Hastings and St Leonards continues to grow as a cultural hub for artists, the group is concerned with the difficulty for young people to enter the local creative scene and be able to access making techniques which are not offered on school curriculums.

The Fun House Arts directors said that “We hope that the festival can form a part of the essential push that many organisations are making across the region, to give children access to the arts.

“Schools are under so much pressure to deliver work which only speaks to the core subject, that they are not able to invest as much time and effort into art as they would often like to. We hope we can be one of the organisations which fills that gap, and which reaches children who really need the kind of fun and joyfulness that can provide”.

Fun House Exhibition

In conjunction with the festival there will be the Fun House Exhibition which will also take place at St Mary in the Castle on Sunday 15 September. The exhibition will display some of the collaborative work from the festival alongside the work of individual families.

Fun House Arts recognises the importance of allowing children the chance to see their creative efforts on show, noting “we know that for kids, having fun and developing new art skills is an incredible confidence boost, especially for those who suffer from anxiety or low self-esteem.

“What better way to double up on that confidence boost, than to curate a special exhibition so that young people can see how their new skills can be used and how seriously their work should be taken”.

Families can sign up for the exhibition with no entry fees on the day of the festival and will be later reminded of the dates and the times.

The Fun House Festival at St Mary in the Castle on Friday 23 August. Morning session 9:30am-13:00pm and afternoon session 13:30-5pm.

Ticket prices are £12 per child and £4 per adult. St Mary in the Castle will be running a bar with tea, coffee and snacks for children available. You can book your place here.

For more information visit the Fun House Festival website or follow the group on Instagram @funhousefestival.

 

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