Light Night saw the presence of the British Library making an impact in Leeds as images from the library’s book collection burst across the façade of the Queens Hotel. This was just the beginning of a number of events celebrating libraries in Leeds.
The highlight of Light Night, the UK’s largest annual light festival, is the projection on the Queens Hotel. Providing a massive backdrop with a great viewing area from City Square, the historic hotel inspires creativity.
This year, the British Library commissioned video projection artists Illuminos to create an artwork using images from the library’s digitised collections. The Bookbinder saw all 8 floors of the hotel covered in a vast array of colourful images. The Bookbinder character skipped across the walls with a magical needle that brought forth a host of images. Luxuriant plants replaced street scenes, lighthouses and ships rose from the sea, animals marched across the building. A highlight for me was a blue whale rising and then splashing back into a foaming ocean.
The British Library has always been linked to the Leeds area through its library and archive at Boston Spa. The library is now developing a new home in the heart of Leeds and in the lead up to the building of this new Northern hub, they are strengthening ‘roots in Yorkshire by co-curating events, exhibitions and family activities with people and organisations throughout the region for everyone to enjoy.
These links include sponsoring Furnace Fruit by Karanjit Panesar at Leeds Art Gallery, workshops in Leeds schools and collaboration with the Libraries in Leeds Festival. The Libraries in Leeds Festival (4-9 November) celebrates the 50+ libraries in Leeds: public, subscription, academic and specialist, as well as the British Library. Leeds has a rich library heritage and still maintains more libraries than any city of a similar size in the UK.
The Festival includes backstage tours of various libraries, talks and an online exhibition that has involved the British Library in its curation. The British Library has organised a discussion on AI in libraries to be hosted at The Leeds Library with a range of experts in the field. Other speakers include Tracy Chevalier, Tilly Lockey and Ash Bhardwaj. On Thursday 7 th TV presenter and author Mary-Ann Ochota introduces a series of short presentations and a panel discussion with local experts under the banner Secret Leeds.
The Festival finishes on Saturday 9th November with a range of less formal events. The Edward Boyle Library at the university will be transformed into a Makerspace, with three family friendly creative sessions. The Leeds Central Library will launch its newly refurbished Music Library with a family friendly fun day of music-making, resulting in a first gig at Leeds’ newly refurbished music library. Come along to listen, learn and join in with a mix of live music performances and taster workshops throughout the day, led by LS18 Rocks!
My personal involvement will be to lead a walking tour of Leeds libraries on the Saturday morning.
On the 30th October, in the lead up to the Festival, I will also be presenting an illustrated talk at The Leeds Library, Britain’s oldest operational subscription library. Great Northern Libraries: Unsung Visitor Attractions will celebrate libraries that are open for everyone to visit and enjoy. I will be highlighting the importance of libraries to the development of our region and showcasing some of the fascinating buildings and institutions you can visit.
Great Northern Libraries: Unsung Visitor Attractions.
30th October 6pm The Leeds Library Tickets here.
Libraries in Leeds Festival 4-9 November
https://librariesinleeds.org/events/
