Create culture:
Library Innovative Services

In 2020, the Ukrainian Library Association implements an international project called “Create Culture: Library Innovative Services”, supported by the European Union as a part of the House of Europe program. On a competitive basis, 32 librarians from Ukraine and Belarus were selected and trained by Danish and Ukrainian coaches. As a result of the workshops, each participating librarian developed and implemented a new innovative service for the development of creative industries in their library. These services are presented on the website.

“Artist’s studio” (online)

Dnipro Regional Library for Youth named after M. Svetlova opened an online “Artist’s studio”, which will introduce users to local craftspeople, as well as teach to create traditional Ukrainian handmade products.

“Artist’s studio” combines several separate areas. Among them are “Uniquely-Desined Doll” (video master classes on creating a “Motanka: doll), “Petrykivska flower” (video master classes on Petrykivka painting), “Artist’s workshop” (online art classes), “Masters’ stories” (short video stories about craftspeople of Dnipropetrovsk region) and “Art Gallery” (virtual gallery-sale of craftspeople’s works)

“Talking to women aged 30 to 45, I found out that they are interested in the traditions and culture of Ukraine, get pleasure and inspiration from creating products with their own hands. That’s when the idea of ​​creating the “Artist’s studio” arose. I thought of including videos with master classes on creating a doll-motanka in the service”, shares librarian Natalia Sparikhina.

Later, to expand the range of users, the service was joined by the “Painter’s Workshop”, which attracted children from 12 to 16 years old who want to improve their drawing skills.

At the same time, according to Natalia, the theme of Petrykivka painting, which is now represented by the Petrykivska Flower service, has been in demand among the library’s female audience between the ages of 13 and 25 for a long time.

“While testing the prototype with the craftspeople, I learned that they do not know how to advertise and sell their products. I was eager to help them and to make as many people as possible aware of their work. Thus, new parts of the workshop appeared. There were “History of Masters” and “Art Gallery”, – says Natalia Sparikhina.

The “Artist’s studio” service works at the library named after M. Svetlov from September 1, 2020.

Project results

Natalia Sparikhina says, “Currently, the service is available online, but on November 5, as part of the project, a personal exhibition of the artist Valentin Nazarenko was opened. He also conducted master classes in the “Artist’s studio”. So, we combine different formats.

Thanks to the exhibition, many young people, students, friends and just painting enthusiasts visited the library this month. The exhibition is a great success, and there are already people who would like to buy the artist’s work.

We provide our service free of charge, but optionally visitors can pay or order individual master classes. The price of latter is determined directly by the craftsperson who will hold it. Customers can also purchase kits for creativity or authentic works.

Such master classes have been in demand for quite a long time now, so we have not seen an increase in their popularity yet. On the other hand, we managed to attract new partners.

The knowledge I gained during the project is of great value, since it is necessary in our daily work and aimed at development and progress. Now we try to rely on the specific needs of our users when conducting events. We do surveys, observations, we try to make sure the library visitors benefit from the events”.  

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