Non-stop music and performance as the “soul” of the city celebrates 10 years

LIBRARIES are the “soul” of the city and vital for people of all ages, a senior member of Explore York has said.

Barbara Swinn was speaking as the mutual celebrated its 10th year of taking charge of the city’s libraries and archives.

Today its flagship building, York Explore in Museum Street, had an open mic all afternoon with a dozen performers singing and giving spoken word performances and a design-your-own-print-t-shirt workshop.

T-shirts drying at the printing workshop (Image: Newsquest)

The celebrations will culminate tonight when York Explore will be transformed into a music venue, with a bar and a ticket-only concert, supported by a host of performers, headlined by local band Bull.

Explore York’s Holly Beer and local band Bull and details of tonight’s gig (Image: Newsquest)

The library will open on time tomorrow as usual after volunteers and staff led by executive director Jenny Layfield carry out a late night makeover.

Barbara, head of development and public engagement, said libraries had come a long way from the days when they were all about books and kept quiet.

“They are vital to the city,” she said. “If you take a library, you have taken the soul out of a place. Libraries are a catalyst. It could be where you discover your future.”

Barbara Swinn (Image: Newsquest)

She said people use York’s libraries to visit their cafes, attend a range of clubs and events, use them as warm spaces in the winter, socialise, go online and attend courses education as well as to borrow books and do not need a library card. to enter their buildings.

She said libraries can spark a child’s imagination, introduce children to the joy of reading through activities as well as books themselves, and open the door for people of all ages to a subject or interest that could lead to a career.

Libraries are also a place where people who live alone or have experienced major bereavement or trauma can come and sit quietly without being told to leave or expected to buy something and be back in the community .

Explore York wants to work with the community to provide what the community wants and needs and the future is in partnership with other organizations, she said.

Their buildings house many different community organizations. Some libraries are in buildings with other organisations, such as those at York Stadium and New Earswick Folk Hall.

All of York’s libraries and reading cafes had festive events yesterday, including seed sowing, bunting workshops, carols, coffee mornings, birthday parties and book and craft sales.

Later this year, Clifton Explore Library’s new learning center and garden is expected to open on the completely transformed former Clifton Without Junior School site.

It will join similar Explore centers in Acomb and Tang Hall, 11 other libraries in the city, as well as reading cafes in Homestead and Rowntree Parks and Hungate and a mobile library.