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.

Art space “SELO”

An art space “SELO” was created on the basis of the Public Library named after O. Levitsky Nekhvoroshcha Amalgamated Territorial Community in Poltava. This is a platform for cooperation of folk craftspeople and artists.

“SELO” works as a space where craftspeople from different filed can conduct master classes, demonstrate their works and meet their colleagues.

According to the initiator of the service, Iryna Shelemba, there are a host of craftspeople in the community. These are artists, a pokerwork master, a potters, embroiderers, ethnography masters and others. This is the reason why the creation of such a space was prompted.

“Exhibitions of artists’ and craftspeople’s works can be organized in the space for 0.5 to 1.5 months. We also have a Facebook page where we publish photos and videos with product advertising and reviews of the authors’ work”, says Iryna.

The prototype of the service was an exhibition of drawings by local amateur artist Andriy Mukhin. As the experience has shown, online platform SELO has proved to be effective since, according to Andriy, it brought him new customers.

“Currently, our team is developing a project to create walking and cycling tours, the route of which will include libraries. We plan to acquaint tourists with the history of our region and the products of craftspeople”, adds Iryna Shelemba.

The service has been operating in the library since September 2020. The master class is paid.

Project results

Iryna Shelemba says, “Everyone can use the service. Age or gender do not matter. We are visited by villagers who are engaged in fine arts, photography, embroidery, baking, knitting, handmade, etc. These people have a desire to sell their own works, as well as seek to communicate with like-minded people.

We strive to unite people around us, to help them get out of their family and work “bubbles” into the wider world. This is especially true of rural libraries, which, in addition to meeting the daily needs of citizens, also serve the function of preserving local culture and popularizing the creative industries, as there is no creative infrastructure in the villages. The mission of the library is to be close to users, taking into account their interests and needs.

We are currently organizing online and offline exhibitions of local masters of arts and crafts, hold master classes that provide opportunities to realize the creative potential of rural artists.

On the page “Art space “SELO” in social networks we hold online exhibitions, post information about the events and the authors once a month. Master classes are a cool idea for leisure with a child, a loved one or just for quality me-time. These are real vitamins for emotional intelligence, self-esteem, self-expression. And online broadcasting gives an opportunity to expand the circle of clients and folk art enthusiasts”.

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