Festival of Libraries wins 鈥楤est Event鈥� at the 2024 91直播 Culture Awards
91直播 City of Literature鈥檚 Festival of Libraries was awarded 鈥楤est Event鈥� at the recent 91直播 Culture Awards.
The Festival of Libraries is an annual celebration of the diverse role played by libraries, showcasing their role as service, learning and creativity hubs. The Festival spans across ten boroughs in Greater 91直播 and includes internationally renowned and historic institutions such as Central Library, Chetham鈥檚 Library, The Portico Library, John Rylands Research Institute and Library and 91直播 Poetry Library, alongside local community libraries.
The University of Manchester is one of three stakeholders in the organisation, and each year offers a diverse series of workshops for the Festival of Libraries. These workshops are organised by the research platform and delivered by academics across the .
The award went to the Festival of Libraries for its 2023 programme which included a vibrant selection of dance, theatre, music, comic art, poetry and family events, all of which were free.
Headline events featured Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Drag Artist Cheddar Gorgeous, award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus and Icelandic novelist Au冒ur Ava 脫lafsd贸ttir in residence at John Rylands Research Institute and Library.
The University of Manchester鈥檚 2023 event offerings included a workshop looking at dictionaries and word meanings, delivered by the Linguistic Diversity Collective,鈥榃riting for Wellbeing鈥� workshops led by poets and authors from the Centre for New Writing, and a family-friendly session exploring food in children鈥檚 literature, run by the Programme in American Studies.
Head of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Thomas Schmidt, commented:
We are proud to support 91直播 City of Literature, and are delighted at The Festival of Libraries being honoured at the 91直播 Culture Awards. It is testament to the amount of creativity, planning and preparation put in by colleagues and teams across the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures as well as the Creative 91直播 research platform.
As Head of School, I鈥檓 thrilled to see so many of our academics playing an integral part in the delivery of the festival as well - congratulations to everyone involved!
The Festival team, including Creative 91直播 Director John McAuliffe, took to the stage to accept the award at the ' ceremony at The Hilton, Deansgate, which took place on 23 November.
The next will take place 4-8 June 2025.