Culture Perth and Kinross are delighted to announce they have received £14,800 from the Scottish Government Public Library Improvement Fund (PLIF) administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC).

The project, Cultural and Heritage Connections, aims to re-engage audiences with their local library service and give staff, who will be working alongside commissioned artists, the opportunity to participate in new ways of working. As part of this, Culture Perth and Kinross, who manage museum, library and archive activity in Perth and Kinross, will be running four artist-led workshops across their library service.

Introduction to Photography will use material from the collection held at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, specifically items from the David Octavius Hill and Magnus Jackson collections. Stitching Stories will focus on the overlooked stories of women in local history, creating a quilt that celebrates and highlights these individuals and stories. The final quilt will be added to the collections held at Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Singing Soutar, Singing Perthshire, will utilise the Atholl Collection held at the AK Bell Library and participants will be invited to learn traditional songs of the region and create a contemporary reimagining of them. A final performance, which will incorporate Gaelic and Scots translations, will be recorded and made available on the Culture Perth and Kinross website, as well as YouTube and added to the oral history holdings cared for by Culture Perth and Kinross Archive Service.

Finally, the fourth workshop Making Marks on Paper will look at drawing inspiration from the works of 20th-century artists held by Perth Museum and Art Gallery. Works by artists held in the collections, such as Elizabeth Blackadder, JD Fergusson, Joan Eardley and John Byrne will be used as inspiration to encourage participants to express themselves creatively. The final works will be used as a digital backdrop to Singing Soutar, Singing Perthshire and will also be displayed in local libraries.

Rhona Corbett, Head of Heritage and Culture said “We’re delighted to receive funding from the Scottish Government to support this program in 2022. The pandemic has hit libraries particularly hard, and we’re extremely optimistic that Culture and Heritage Connections will not only entice new audiences to our venues but also encourage our existing library users to try something different. We look forward to working with local artists to help deliver these workshops, at our Alyth, Pitlochry, Comrie and A K Bell Libraries, and we look forward to announcing more details shortly.”

Cultural and Heritage Connections commences in April and further details will be made available on the Culture Perth and Kinross website over the coming months.