Hasta La Ideas

Graphic artist Morag Myerscough has created a pop-up pavilion to host an 18-week creative residency programme at the new Library of Birmingham.

Myerscough’s pavilion will host a new event each week as part of the library’s Discovery Season: an arts programme curated by Capsule to celebrate the opening of the £189 million building, which houses a recording studio, an outdoor amphitheatre and gallery space as well as more than 800,000 books.

Hand-painted in Myerscough’s bold neon style, it features a series of words designed to reflect the programme’s diversity and will sit in the building’s foyer.

Artists taking over the space between September and December this year include Brian Homer, who will display photos of local residents in a re-imagining of the 1979 Handsworth Self Portrait Project; paper artist Yvette Hawkins, who has teamed up with digital media artist Benjamin French to launch an interactive book browsing installation, and illustration collective Girls Who Draw, which has designed a museum of mythical creatures.

Capsule has also curated a ‘Discovery Trail’ – a series of artworks that will lead visitors around the library and to its various collections. Laura Kate Chapman has decorated the Children’s Library and will lead drawing workshops for families; animator Matt Watkins has created an animation based on images and characters from The Audubon Book of American Birds (apparently the world’s most expensive book) and Su Blackwell has designed a paper sculpture referencing the building’s Shakespeare Collection (below).

The trail and events are part of an initiative to make the library a cultural and social venue, says Capsule co-founder Lisa Meyer.

“The 18-week residency is really a statement of intent – it’s designed to show visitors that the building is somewhere to have fun and learn. We wanted to give a flavour of lots of different creative practices but we also wanted to celebrate the idea of people making things themselves such as publishing, drawing and bookbinding, and showcase a number of organisations in the region,” she adds.

Myerscough’s bright and cheerful designs have been applied to a series of public spaces in London and Birmingham – she worked with Vital Arts on transforming the children’s wing at the Royal London Hospital, and has designed large-scale wall graphics for schools in both cities – you can read an interview with her from the May issue of Creative Review here.

The library’s Discovery Season will open next week and runs until December 22. For more info, visit libraryofbirmingham.com

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