Explore York Libraries and Archives Annual Review 2022 - Report - Page 11
Challenging Imaginations –
The World Turned Upside Down
When local community artist Stephen Lee Hodgkins
came across a chapbook in the Archive at York
Explore, and Wendy Kent from Explore heard about
poet Liv Torc’s haiflu poems in response to covid,
the idea to create a hand-printed chapbook to make
sense of 2020 was born. Taking inspiration from
a chapbook printed in the 1800s by York printer
James Kendrew, The World Turned Upside Down
Haiflu Edition 2020 beautifully expresses thoughts
and feelings about the pandemic year through a
combination of art and poetry.
“Bravo on World
Turned Upside Down!
I am a fully fledged library
enthusiast and have seen
some fabulous creative
community engagement
round poetry in libraries this
month, but York Explore
takes the biscuit...”
FORWARD ARTS
FOUNDATION
Challenging Imaginations –
Astronomermaid Panto
“Some kids hadn’t heard of physics before –
now I have eight-year-olds unfazed by A-level
topics’. Former Bollywood actor Lara Stafford
now runs daily free science lessons on
Facebook (all saved on YouTube afterwards),
aimed at everyone from five to 14 year olds.
The likes and follows have notched up (she
has 25K Facebook followers and more than
six thousand people tuned in to her panto
The Little Astronomermaid.”
Daily Telegraph, March 2020
Challenging Imaginations –
The Nuisance Inspector podcast
“Great to have such
online events during the
pandemic; please keep doing
even when life returns to
normal; very important to have
online events for people with
health risks who are unable or
very reluctant to venture out
and for whom, without events
online, life would be very
dull and quiet
and lonely.”
In November we used a podcast for the first time to
bring the Nuisance Inspector to a wider audience
as part of Explore Your Archives week. Based on
the story of the Hungate clearances and inspired
by letters, maps, books and photographs from the
internationally significant Past Caring archives,
The Nuisance Inspector used drama, comedy
and live music to transport audiences into
a powerful and poignant past. Learning
how to create a podcast meant we grew in
knowledge and experience which will help us
bring in new audiences.
EXPLORE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020-21
11
