Coalville Library Community Outdoor Art Project
The second year of our Creative Expressions in Libraries projects, funded by Arts Council England, is underway. The team at Coalville Library are keen to build upon the work started by the ‘Culture Nature’ project we ran last year; to find out more about that fantastic project, click here. In addition, in 2022 we undertook a survey with the Coalville public, with library users and, importantly, with non-users. Within this survey, nearly half of the respondents indicated that they would be more likely to use the library if the frontage were more welcoming and attractive. Using this information, the library working group, comprising of library assistants, management, outreach workers and librarians, decided to move forward with a Community Outdoor Art project.
Following a competitive recruitment process, local artist Llynda Baugh was commissioned to deliver the project, with a plan of creating a community mosaic that would embody both Coalville’s substantial contribution to varied industries and Coalville’s inclusion in the National Forest and its connection to the natural world. The mosaic will comprise of two parts: a colliery wheel roughly 2.2m wide, with its segments representing different industries such as brick making and textiles alongside a beautiful and colourful tree that will stand approximately 2.3m tall. The finished mosaic will be mounted on the outside wall of the library, to the left side of the main doors, and will be predominately made from glass tiles to ensure a bright and eye-catching finish.
Elements of the mosaic, such as the leaves on the tree and the design of the various industries, will be shaped by the participants in the workshops. Participants will then be creating their own contributions that will be included in the finished piece, as well as creating their own small mosaic to take home to remember their experience.
Llynda has now completed all of our workshops with ten different community groups, including young carers, children in care and pupils at Belvoirdale Primary School. We hope to unveil the finished mosaic in March/April 2025, with a Celebration event which all children and families that took part will be invited to. Watch this space for photo updates as we progress through the project!
Community Participation Workers within the Culture Leicestershire team manage the work of Creative Practitioners, providing support, direction, and advice.
Stephanie Strange is the Community Participation Worker managing this project. Please email or call with any enquiries: stephanie.strange@leics.gov.uk 0116 3058760.
Leaves for our Coalville Library Community Mosaic
The fabulous mosaics that have been designed, created and taken home
Learning about Coalville’s Industrial Heritage with Llynda’s ‘Heritage in a Bag’ game!
