Working in partnership with your local library to deliver Arts Award

Since 2022, Trinity Champion Centre, The University of Edinburgh Museums, has been working in partnership with Craigmillar Library to deliver Arts Award Bronze programmes to young people aged 11 – 13. In this blog, Vanessa Ford, Library Development Leader at Craigmillar Library and Laura Beattie, Engagement Officer (Communities) at the University of Edinburgh, outline how they run their Bronze Arts Award programme during an after-school club in the library and offer tips for working in partnership with your local library...

University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections

The University of Edinburgh’s Heritage Collections looks after the University’s Special Collections and Museums which includes rare books, manuscripts, archives, art and historic musical instruments. As part of our Civic Engagement Service, we work to engage as many people as possible with the collections for positive social impact. Partnering with Craigmillar Library allows us to work with young people in their own community space who we might not otherwise be able to reach.

Craigmillar Library

Craigmillar Library is one of 28 City of Edinburgh Council Libraries. Located inside the North East Locality Office, Craigmillar Library is at the centre of a community hub. We are always looking for new ways to engage with our users, including our musical instrument library and various partnerships with the community. Arts Award, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, has been a wonderful way to allow the young people and teenagers who use our space to funnel their energy into a worthwhile project and visit new spaces. It has been a rare opportunity to allow the children to gain a recognised qualification in a public library, which is not usually possible in this format. We are located next door to our local High School, so we continuously try to nourish our relationships with the children and young people who continue to use the library after school.

Our Bronze Arts Award programme: Libraries, Past, Present & Future

While previous programmes have been focused on various forms of visual arts, this year we have focused on the importance of libraries and what they mean to the youth of today. Unfair stereotypes of libraries can still be found in various forms of media which could shape their understanding of the service. In reality, libraries are welcoming spaces that children and young people can come to learn, be creative, and thrive. We decided to focus on the young people’s perceptions of libraries and how this can help to better shape their understanding of the space. Some of the activities we’ve included in the programme are:

• For Part C, ‘Arts inspiration’, young people visited various libraries across the City of Edinburgh, including the University Library, allowing them to see a higher education space in action.
• For Part B, ‘Explore the arts as an audience member’, we visited the National Library of Scotland’s Dear Library exhibition which had various wonderful representations of libraries in the media. The children were able to see how libraries are represented and then for Part A ‘Explore the arts as a participant’, they designed their own library cards using inspiration from book cover art that they found in Craigmillar Library.
• For Part C, ‘Arts inspiration’, the children have also been researching an author who inspires them, which has started to shape their ideas for a final project, using inspiration from authors and illustrators mixed with their ideas of a library of the future. They are encouraged to use the skills they have learned about photography, creative writing, collage and tunnel booking (a paper-crafting technique making 3D, layered miniature books) to create an art piece for themselves (Part A) and share their skills with others (Part D, Arts skills share – passing on arts skills to others).

Top tips for working in partnership with a library

• Consider how your Arts Award programme might fit in with what the library is already doing, are there teen groups of young people that might be interested in doing the award?
• Listen to the library staff, who already have strong relationships with the young people, about the type of activities the young people would enjoy as well as logistical issues, for example, what time of day works best?
• Choose a theme which is relevant to both organisations and to which both can contribute different aspects. Planning the programme together, and having a firm understanding of who is responsible for what, is key.
• Think about current community relationships, such as promoting in local schools and building on those relationships.

Final tip

One significant advantage of working with a community space such as a public library is that it’s building connections throughout the generations. If you can, think beyond the scope of one Arts Award programme to how you can work together sustainably in the long term.