The art of the zine comes full circle with a workshop at Northam Library

After attending a zine workshop as a participant in Bideford Library some years ago, Sam recently ran a workshop for Libraries Unlimited in Northam Library. Sam is currently a student at Falmouth university studying English and Creative Writing and is in their third and final year.

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The excited chatter of parents and children alike; the rustling of scrap papers shifting over tables; an occasional exclamation about dropping a glue stick lidless onto the floor… That’s right. It’s the epic highs and lows of a zine workshop.

When I first experienced that magic for myself, I was fifteen and a volunteer inside Bideford Library. The children’s section had been temporarily repurposed into a mimicry of an arts and crafts store and myself and about a dozen others were getting stuck right in. We were taught how to fold A4 sheets of paper into tiny booklets (and gained a new sense of respect for those able to make the sharpest, cleanest creases) and how to make something beautiful using cut out magazines and our imagination.

Five years later and I’m running a zine workshop of my own inside Northam Library. At twenty, there’s an added layer of admiration of zines that I didn’t realise I had back when I first discovered them - the knowledge that zines are works of art, often able to change unique or hidden experiences into shared narratives and an appreciation for how they can be used to communicate, inform, and tell stories. It doesn’t seem completely real that I’ve stepped into that position of responsibility, and that the opportunities that libraries and the Evolve programme provided me with have made it all come around rather full circle.

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Join the Libraries Unlimited mailing list below and keep an eye on our Events page for details of forthcoming creative events and workshops.