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PerceptionAREA
The Project: South Oxhey is a post war London overflow estate on the outskirts of Watford. Hertfordshire County Council was awarded
£1.4million from the Big Lottery Fund for Community Libraries to redevelop the Oxhey Library. To deliver the expansion of the library, HCC was required to produce a Community Engagement Plan, which extended the information from previous consultations with additional evidence of the range of services and activities which the community wanted from their new library. |
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The Idea: The Perception AREA creative team developed a scheme to engage with the people who live and work in South Oxhey and used / did not use their local library.
The mission was to find out from the community ‘what the library can be to you’, to spark their imagination to consider what attributes they would want for their new and improved library. The findings would take the form of a picture book, or graphic novel, with images and text inspired by conversations with the community, and by the heritage of South Oxhey. Attracting and engaging with the ‘hard to reach’ was crucial to the success of the consultation. Perception AREA commissioned the artists Simon Grennan and Chris Sperandio, known as the Kartoon Kings with an established practice in public engagement, image and text to join the creative team to help deliver the consultation.
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The Work: Over a 10 week period, the artists conducted informal conversations with over 70 people of all ages by spending time in cafes, shops, pubs, youth clubs and local transport. These sessions revealed a strong sense of place and pride in the community and contributed a wide range of ideas and aspirations for the redeveloped library.
Through regular meetings, the creative team and the client analysed the material and helped to target additional information which was then transformed into a visually exciting, informative and collectable hardback “South Oxhey Library Book”. With style and graphic references to both South Oxhey’s heritage and contemporary image, the book captures
memories, personal experiences and anecdotes, supporting specific suggestions for improving the facilities and programming activities.
The publication of the book was celebrated at a special Tea Party at the Library, with over 165 people choosing to spend their Saturday to support the Book and the future of their library as a vital community
resource.
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The Results: The information informed the officers charged with delivering the Community Engagement Plan, and the suggested activities
continues to support officers and council members in making decisions about the library’s redevelopment. The South Oxhey Library Book was distributed free to over 500 local households and appropriately, is
available to borrow from the library.
Read how the South Oxhey Book informed the redevelopment of the library >>
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