Future Libraries Festivals
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B-Festival at Biggleswade Library
Celebrating Biggleswade's history as a place for bike inventions and all things 'B'.
Bringing the community together for collective activities.
The event happened on Saturday 14th November 2015, find out what happened below:
Throughout the day:
Book bag customisation, free Bikeability sessions, drinks from our special Brew Caravan (tea during the day, beer in the evening), rides on the Bike smoothie maker!
11am – 1pm: Bike-Library Book Making Session
A book making session, creating books about life in Biggleswade. The books were added to the new portable bike library for Biggleswade.
1.30pm: Launch of the Biggleswade Bike Library
The new bike library was launched with a ride around Biggleswade.
4 – 5pm: Bend it!
A free yoga lesson.
6 - 8pm: Bite-size Biggleswade Supper
A free community supper celebrating Biggleswade delicacy the Brussel Sprout, with a variety of bite size treats for your tastebuds.
6 - 8pm: Wine and chocolate tasting
Hosted by the Biggleswade Fair Trade Association.
8 - 10pm: Musical Bingo.
A different spin on a traditional game.
Flitwick Future Library Festival
The Flitwick Future Library Festival, Friday 16th to Sunday 18th October 2015, was the second of three commissions making up the project and was a free festival like no other. Hosted by artists Rosalie Schweiker, Ania Bas and David Littler, it transformed Flitwick Library into a hub of comedy, debate, music, food and films.
Friday 16th October
It kicked off at 7.30pm on Friday 16 October 2015 with Flitwick Comedy Night and the launch of the Flitwick Joke book – a collection of jokes sold to the artists by
Flitwick residents for 10p a joke. Bedfordshire comics Simon Munnery, brought his ‘And Nothing But’ show hot from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Eamonn
Flemming performed on the night.
The cocktail caravan was there serving a special Flitwick Cocktail and craft beers.
Saturday 17th October
Saturday morning saw the library playing host to a language café from 9.30-11am with native speakers keen to share their language, and from 11.30am-1pm local crime fiction author Adam Croft and And Publishing ran a workshop on how to self-publish. In the afternoon, local groups went head to head in the community challenge competition.
From 7pm the library screened the Flitwick Skater Group’s Flitwick Skate Competition film as well as the cult skating film Dogtown and Z-Boys.
The cocktail caravan served a special Flitwick Cocktail and craft beers on Friday and Saturday nights.
Sunday 18th October
There was a more relaxed pace at the library on the Sunday with rest, relaxation and musical bingo as the theme of the day. The weekend culminated in a discussion and debate about the future for libraries.
Who were the artists?
David Littler
David is an artist and DJ based in Knaresborough who brings his passions for textiles and sound together in his work. He is known for Sampler Culture Clash, an ongoing exploration of embroidery and song. His recent project Yan Tethera, with The English Folk Dance and Song Society celebrated the making of textiles and textile related folk songs through making textiles, creating new songs and singing events.
Ania Bas
Ania Bas is interested in the ways that stories shape our understanding and knowledge of places and people. She uses a wide range of approaches, from events, walks, performances, useful objects and publications to bring new life to spaces, places and communities.
Rosalie Schweiker
Rosalie is a conceptual artist who uses social exchanges such as conversations, economic transactions and jokes to find new functions for art in society. Inherent in the work is a playful humour that makes knowable the unwritten rules by which social systems operate. Since Rosalie’s focus is on the communicative effects of art, most of her work leaves hardly any material trace.
Why was the library involved?
Central Bedfordshire Council libraries in partnership with Bedford Creative Arts commissioned the Library as Laboratory project, with funding from the Arts Council, 8 artists worked with members of the community to explore and imagine what a library of the future could be.
Find out more about this fascinating project at the Bedford Creative Arts website.
Page last updated: 1st September 2016