MORE than 100 people found their inner artist at this year’s Farnham Fun Palace a celebration of arts, culture and sciences.

The fun palace which took place at the Museum of Farnham treated visitors to a musical wall, a sewing workshop held by Sarah and Suzie of Farnham Local Food, an origami garden and workshop, science experiments and Chris Browne brought his percussions, guitar and didgeridoo along, so people could have a go. He also taught them how to make their own instruments.

There were a number of drawing workshops, in conjunction with The Big Draw and pumpkins for the visitors to carve in preparation of Hallowe’en.

The Mayor of Farnham, Pat Frost, was in attendance, which gave organisers Carine Osmont and Alexandre Mendonca an opportunity to talk about participation and community, about the difference between doing something for the community (and telling them what they want) and doing something with the community (and asking them what they want).

Carine said: “The mayor seemed keen to put the community work/efforts forward and she had very encouraging words for us. The day went extremely well, even better than expected. The first two people came in at 12pm sharp and stayed with us all day, like most of the visitors – about 100 of them.

“The visitors used our fun palace to engage with common tools such as science, words, paintbrushes and musical instruments, to make sense of the world around them. What was shared on the day between makers and visitors was a common trust in making together, in creating social understanding and cohesion.

“Sophie Smith, assistant curator of the museum also joined us and agreed to actually participate in our fun palace next year. We are very happy with the turnout and the outcome and we very much look forward to Fun Palaces 2016.”