Culture Catch Up: The Other Library
Hello! I’m back with another instalment of Culture Catch Up; the blog series that highlights all the work Buckinghamshire Libraries are doing as part of Rekindle. As we approach the end of the year, the world starts to get a little bit reflective. We reminisce on the year gone by and put down our hopes for the future. Here at Rekindle HQ, we’re doing exactly the same thing. It is my pleasure in this blog post to reflect upon the incredible event that was The Other Library.
From the 22nd October – 2nd November, there was something a little different about Burnham Library. Freewheelers Theatre and Media company, a disabled lead company commissioned by Farnham Maltings in partnership with Buckinghamshire Libraries, took up residence with ‘The Other Library’, a bookshelf installation accompanied by two performances on the 2nd November. ‘The Other Library’ told the hidden stories of disability within the county using physical and interactive books. Audiences could sit and explore the installation at their own pace, picking up however many books they liked. There was even the opportunity to add their own stories to the mix. Then, on the 2nd November, Freewheelers performed live amongst the installation. It was a multimedia performance, incorporating video, dance and monologue into an incredibly moving and inspirational half-hour.
Audiences loved 'The Other Library'
The feedback from the performance was incredible, with 100% of the audience thinking the event was very high, or high quality. The majority of the audience had not attended something like ‘The Other Library’ before, which from a Rekindle point of view was excellent: it proves that Buckinghamshire Libraries are pushing boundaries as a cultural venue and offering a unique and exciting programme to our visitors. Most of our audiences also said that they would return to the library for a similar event, so we’ll have to get our thinking caps on!
We’d like to thank Freewheelers for putting on such a beautiful piece and all the staff at Burnham Library for all their hard work. We hope that ‘The Other Library’, a piece grown in Bucks, can have county-wide and even national appeal, and that we as a service elevate our offering to our visitors. We will see what happens in 2025!