Our Library of Light

Commission for The Human Library Programme, at Crosby Public Library, Liverpool, launched June 2019. 

Our Library of Light was a commission by Jenny Steele for Crosby  Library, where over 10 months, Jenny worked to develop a wall-based work which responds to and celebrates the library’s groundbreaking and forward thinking design. The project included meetings and conversations with library users, collaborative poetry and printmaking workshops and research in the archives to source imagery and plans for the building, designed by Ronald Mason in 1968.  The result was a new wallpaper for the Local History, Archives and Reference library on the first floor. 

Alongside the wallpaper, selections from the Crosby Library Poetry group’s members were displayed semi permanently on the interior walls of the library, reflecting on their personal experiences of this important communal space.

The Human Library is a collaborative arts programme in two library settings: Bootle and Crosby. Devised by Sefton Library Service with artistic director Maria Brewster, and producers Niamh Riordan and Laura Yates, The Human Library is a Sefton Libraries project funded by Arts Council England.