Applause Rural Touring is thrilled to announce its partnership with Medway Libraries to embark on an innovative and nationally significant arts development program called Rekindle. This initiative places libraries at the heart of creative and cultural experiences for rural and underserved communities.
Project lead Creative Arts East has secured a substantial grant of £567,956 from Arts Council England to collaborate with library and arts partners across Medway, Norfolk, Sandwell, Blackburn, and Buckinghamshire, this pioneering three-year project will not only boost workforce skills but will also experiment with new models of audience engagement both within and beyond library spaces.
This ambitious endeavour will empower Medway Libraries to strengthen ties with the local cultural ecosystem, bringing culturally relevant and creatively vibrant activities to library users through a sustainable and innovative approach. Rekindle aims to transform libraries into hubs of artistic exploration and cultural immersion, fostering a new appreciation for these community cornerstones.
In Medway, the exhilarating family-friendly live shows were brought to you by Nearly There Yet with The Flying Bazazi Brothers – a heady mix of celebrity, circus, and family history steeped in tradition in July 2023. In November 2023, we presented Enter Edem’s Ugly Bugs Wingding, an entrancing short puppetry show for all the family. In April we presented Thumbelina by Speedwell Dance at Hempstead Library.
The Library at the Edge of the World by Touched Theatre is a brand new puppet show, commissioned by Applause for the Rekindle project. The Library at the Edge of the World is a magical pop-up interactive show and writing experience for young audiences of all backgrounds that celebrates the power of stories to reconnect us to the world around us.
It’s curious larger-than-life puppet librarian will transform any location, expressing herself in actions not words and irresistibly inviting audiences to join her mission – a mission to create a home for the stories of the world’s most overlooked inhabitants. Each of the books she has carefully catalogued will bring to life, through vivid puppetry and sound, the story of the overlooked living things around us: from woodlice to fungi, to trees, kelp and crows.
A magical pop-up interactive show and writing experience for young audiences of all backgrounds that celebrates the power of stories to reconnect us to the world around us.
Images taken at the Bazazi Brothers performances in Medway Libraries –
July 2023