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Sefton Library service is officially Sefton’s first National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), awarded by Arts Council England, as part of a three-year national investment in arts and culture.

The Library Service will receive £195,000 per year from 2023-2026 to deliver its partnership project — ‘At the Library’ — a series of artist-led happenings, events, commissions and interventions in Sefton’s libraries, co-produced with local people and responding to their concerns, wants and needs.

‘At the Library’ is curated and produced by Rule of Threes Arts, a small social arts business in Sefton that brings to life art projects for social change.

Since 2017, the programme has brought artists, activists, gardeners and other creatives into the library space to rethink the creative and civic role libraries play within our community. Over the years, artists have worked with community members to produce a host of ingenious and wonderful projects, including creating a fully functional ceramic dinner service with Aliyah Hussain; cooking up everything from sauerkraut, to foraged blackberry jam doughnuts with Gregory Herbert and Niamh Riordan, and exploring sound and radio waves with Shortwave Collective and Andrew PM Hunt.

Arts Council England Chair, Sir Nicholas Serota, said: “As well as continuing our commitment to our many established and renowned cultural organisations, I am deeply proud of the support we will be giving to those new organisations which will help ignite creativity across the country.  We are facing economic pressures at present but this funding is about an investment in our future. This portfolio will support the next generation of visionary inventors, makers, performers and artists. In particular, the growth of our funding for organisations that support and develop work for children represents a profoundly important long-term investment in our country’s talent.” 

Free and accessible to everyone in Sefton, the programme and library service will continue to support communities through a challenging winter in the face of rising costs of living by acting as a Warm Hub, delivering light-touch moments for connection, warm food, and somewhere to gather.

Thanks to its increasing popularity and quirky successful projects, Arts Council England has since awarded the project National Portfolio Status, meaning the project will now be able to explore the full potential of its project with local people and expand its work into Netherton and Southport libraries to further support and upskill communities, as well as increasing community wellbeing and civic bonds.

Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, said the funding grant of £585,000 will be put to use straight away.

She said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have been awarded Arts Council National Portfolio status.

“With that status comes vital funding which will allow us to continue to provide our programme of artist-led workshops, projects and commissions in community libraries in Bootle and Crosby, as well as extending the programme to other libraries in Southport and Netherton.

“This is a wonderful recognition of the work of the At the Library programme, which uses creative activities to reach out to those who may be feeling lonely, giving them the chance to learn new skills and share their talents with others.

“We are one of only two local authorities in the North West to receive National Portfolio status, which goes a long way to cementing our reputation as a Libraries service that puts our communities at the heart of everything we do.”

For more information about the ‘At The Library project, please visit www.atthelibrary.co.uk.

For more information about ‘Rule of Threes Arts’, please visit: https://ruleofthrees.co.uk/

For more information about Sefton Libraries, please visit: https://www.sefton.gov.uk/libraries