Arts Alive in Libraries was a project funded by Arts Council England.
Babylon ARTS delivered the scheme in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council Library Service and CS3 (Cambridgeshire and Suffolk culture & sport consortium).
The project covered eight libraries in the north of Cambridgeshire; Chatteris, March, Whittlesey, Wisbech, Ramsey, Sawtry, Yaxley and Littleport.
Each library decides how they will spend their allocation of the funding. To help them with this, we created a varied and exciting menu of projects, shows and workshops for them to choose from; and provided ongoing support and guidance.
We are delighted with how the project is progressing. All eight libraries are fully engaged with the scheme and have all requested, selected and delivered events and workshops in accordance with the project plan.
It has been very encouraging to see all the libraries embracing the idea of exploring how their space can be used. Library friends and volunteers have shown great commitment and initiative in moving furniture, bringing in lighting, setting up bars, blacking out windows and producing promotional displays. The results have not gone unnoticed by the public who have been genuinely (and pleasantly) surprised by the transformations of these familiar spaces.
Here is a selection of the many positive comments:
'Amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. It was a remarkable performance. Very different and imaginative. Excellent, atmospheric, absorbing, entertaining, spine chilling! Great event. So nice to come to something local and affordable. Simply brilliant! Hope there will be more future events like this. Thanks for a fantastic evening– first of many I hope!'
'This is the best day ever! Really excellent event – we’ve had such fun. It was amazing and really enjoyable. Amazing. Thank you! Fantastically entertaining, lovely event. Brilliant! Super! Fantastic! Excellent idea! Please do it again. My 8 year old daughter and I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole day – great to meet the authors and illustrators. The events were great fun. The crafts and book stall were also very good. We would love for this event to be repeated please.'
