River Banksy, Public Art
Working in partnership with Rotherham Libraries, we designed a project that would challenge the way the public perceive the purpose of a library space, and expand its definition as a cultural asset while bringing more older youths through the doors to become active members of the lending library service.
This presented challenges on every level, both externally and internally and not least because the central library at Riverside House resides within a larger service with different expectations.
In 2018 artists Adrian Barron and Shelagh McCarthy were engaged to deliver a series of workshops to schools and the general public over a period of several month, exploring text and fonts, and casting these into concrete- creating concrete poetry. This used local knowledge, inspiration from the location and unexpected material processes, taking the printed word to a new level.
The resulting blocks were then arranged to infer ancient relics of lost knowledge in the central space to the council building before going on tour around the branch libraries.
