Market Harborough Library Digital Gaming for Boys
Our fourth year of Creative Expressions in Libraries is heading to Market Harborough!
Did you know that fewer than one in ten teenage boys read for pleasure? This was the focus of our conversations during our first library meeting, where we decided to focus our attention on a digital storytelling project for teenage boys. The project aims to explore new ways of encouraging reading by working with young people to create something that reflects their interests, ideas, and the kinds of stories and experiences they want to engage with.
We believe young people should have a real say in shaping the project, so we throughout August, we went out and asked teenagers in Market Harborough to tell us what kind of digital storytelling project they would like to help bring to life. We spoke with teenagers at local youth centres, the Sea Cadets, and the library, and shared the survey with local football clubs, Scouts, and other youth groups.
We asked two simple questions:
We want young people to be at the heart of creating an exciting game and story experience. The youth survey showed that although game design was the favourite, there was lots of interest in the other digital creative activities too. To help us with achieve our aims and reflect the needs expressed by the youth survey, we’re particularly keen to hear from artists and creative practitioners with bold, imaginative ideas, especially those that combine different digital art forms and explore fresh ways of creating and sharing stories.
We are in the process of finding a Creative Practitioner to share their skills, knowledge and experience. The closing date has passed, submissions have been received and we very much look forward to finding the right Creative Practitioner for our project.
Watch this space for an update soon!
Cultural Participation Workers within the Culture Leicestershire team manage the work of Creative Practitioners, providing support, direction, and advice.
Steph Strange is the Cultural Participation Worker managing this project. Please email or call with any informal enquiries: stephanie.strange@leics.gov.uk 0116 305 8760