As we launch our next season of programmes, we’ve decided to take a moment and think back to our original intention: the coming together of librarians, artists and local people to create new ways for libraries to serve their neighbourhoods; to better support collective wellbeing, happiness and civic bonds.
So, we h`ave decided to look back to move forward, and change our name back to where it all began “at the library” in 2017, where Rule of Threes Arts were invited by Sefton Libraries to pilot a small number of commissions with Emily Speed, Frances Disley, Laurence Payot, Sean Roy Parker and Ciara Phillips, testing out what might artists might be able to make happen in library spaces. The effect was a transformative, magical and paved way for a new way for creativity to bring us together in our neighbourhood.
So we’d like to reintroduce ourselves as “at the library” : a space on the doorstep where everyone is welcome, everything is free. You can come to lend a book, and leave knowing how to learn what lichen tells us about air quality, hot smoke a banana, throw a pot, or distil essences from calendula.
We’d like to take this opportunity to say a big thanks to all the artistic collaborators who have joined us at the library to share their creative practices our neighbourhood and team.
In the coming months, we’re looking forward to spending more time in our garden at Bootle Library; expanding our programme into Netherton library; a workshop from textile and live artist Raisa Kabir, and visits from new creative collaborators Jessica el Mal and Ibukun Baldwin as part of our new programme: “The Colour of Pomegranates” that creates a space of exchange between local women.
Image Credit: Emily Speed, Possibilities Club, 2017. Images by Rob Battersby.