Libraries and arts organisations across the county are being transformed through local company Buzzing Roots’ new project Overgrown City. The aim is to redecorate their windows to recreate an enchanted forest and they are inviting the community to join them.
The Brite Centre in Braunstone, Beaumont Leys Library, Pork Pie Library & Community Centre in Southfields and St Barnabas Libraries in North Evington, as well as arts organisations including Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, LCB Depot, Leicester Print Workshop and Curve will all be taking part in the project which takes place from Monday 11 to Sunday 31 January 2020.
A window design competition will be hosted with local schools taking part, who will get to work with local artists including Sally Stephens, Sian Watson Taylor, Steph Knowles and Kathryn Roe. Schools will also receive art materials from the company to help bring their window designs to life.
Project Manager and Buzzing Roots Founder Liga Orlovska said: “In all communities, it’s really important to share and to tell stories! At this difficult time, we are hoping to bring together communities to tell their stories by decorating their windows. Stories of our lives, our city, joys or struggles – anything can be inspiration. It’s a project that’s safe, creative and accessible for communities to engage with and we can’t wait to see everyone’s creativity.”
Buzzing Roots is a Community Interest Company which was set up in Summer 2020. They connect communities by delivering arts and nature based projects, workshops, community work, events and festivals in Leicester and Leicestershire. The company works with schools, families and communities to “inspire curiosity and ignite their creative spark”.
Since its creation less than a year ago, the company has delivered six community projects, from The Library’s Magic Forest, a project that helped families in need access free books and craft materials, to Natural Galleries, which offered free arts activities to children, working with visual artist Sian Watson Taylor to create sculptural pop-up galleries that celebrated local nature.
