Free activities across Newark at Fun Palace 2022
Free activities have been made available to people across Newark to teach them creative and practical skills.
It is part of Fun Palace 2022, which took place yesterday and today, and included how to fly a plane to learn Scottish country dances.
Open to the whole community, a wide range of activities are taking place in different locations around town.
All the events are free and open to the public regardless of age.
“Fun Palace is open to members of the community, everything is free, education should be at the heart of the community and that’s what we’re trying to achieve.” said Penny Taylor, head of Newark Campus at Lincoln College.
“We want people to come in, see what we’ve got, inspire learning, whether that’s for a 16 year-old or a 60 year-old in a community programme.”
From decorating biscuits, to playing ukulele, to learning self defence martial arts, to making cocktails or belly dancing, there are activities for all tastes.
The participating venues are the National Civil War Centre, Newark Library, Newark Art Gallery, Palace Theatre, Newark College and Inspire at the Buttermarket.
Times will vary depending on venue, but events are running around town from 9am until 5pm.
At yesterday's workshop on how to wire a plug, Dave Inga, the electrical installation lecturer at Newark College, said: “It's a good skill to have, not that you really need it now, but it’s until the day something breaks and if you don’t know how to do it, you’ll have to get someone to do it,”
He added: “If you know how to do it, you’ll save a lot of money.”
The creative writing workshop at Newark College was one of the most popular activities as it was all booked up.
“I’m really enjoying it, I’m learning a lot and it’s encouraging, I loved using the character fact sheet and developing a story.” said June Doubleday.
This is all Fun Palace is about, trying new things, learning things for free and it’s a good taster, you get to know what you want as a hobby or a career, you have a flavour.” said Sara Bullimore, participate and cultural programme coordinator for Newark creates.
“It’s absolutely fantastic how real it is, you do very much feel everything. I felt like I had to land it before turning away, I couldn’t just leave it in the air, you have to park it.” she added regarding her experience at How To Fly A Plane at Newark College today.
Newark resident Barbara Morrell said: “We were delighted, given the choice to do something in the library is just lovely. I think the town should do more activities like this in the future.”
Most of the events tomorrow are drop-in, but others require booking.
For more information on the events taking place today and to book go to http://www.newarkcreates.co.uk/funpalace2022/
“We’re really pleased we’re part of the event, linking with all of our partners in Newark and it’s going to be a good day.” said Claire James, centre manager at Buttermarket.
“We expect it to be quite quiet today but Saturday it will be absolutely fun here because we will have a lot of families and shoppers coming."
