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34<br />
New Village<br />
Hub<br />
Since its closure three years ago, Up Holland<br />
Library has lain dormant at the heart of the local<br />
community – and its loss has been keenly felt.<br />
Community groups like the Friends of Up Holland<br />
were essentially left without a home, and the village<br />
left bereft of a hub.<br />
Now the old library building has been taken over<br />
by Artz Centre, with the aim of transforming it<br />
into a vibrant, multi-purpose community space.<br />
The organisation was previously based out of Up<br />
Holland High School before opening a new centre<br />
in Skelmersdale, but knew they’d need their own<br />
local base if they wanted to expand. October saw<br />
the grand opening of its new Up Holland building,<br />
bringing together potential students of its versatile<br />
arts programme and members of the community<br />
who are able to use the space as they see fit.<br />
‘The most important thing so far has been sharing<br />
our vision with the public, and ensuring they feel<br />
free to pop in and ask questions,’ Director Mark<br />
Ashton explains. ‘The building has been closed for<br />
so long, people are rightfully questioning what<br />
we’ll be doing with it. We’ve reached out to existing<br />
community groups and got them involved too.’<br />
‘We want comfortable chairs and couches in the<br />
reading cafe to inspire people to sit and read all day,<br />
have a chat with people around them, and maybe<br />
get involved in some of our music events or lessons,’<br />
he continues.<br />
Another important aspect<br />
of the renovations was<br />
to appraise what local<br />
people wanted from such<br />
a centre, and to figure out<br />
how Mark could help meet<br />
their needs. ‘We talked to<br />
pupils from local schools<br />
to see what young people<br />
felt was missing locally, and<br />
tried to implement those<br />
suggestions in our plans.<br />
Since receiving feedback<br />
from some of Up Holland’s<br />
older residents, we decided<br />
to include a lot of adult fiction too.’<br />
The new Artz Centre will also offer a Click n’ Collect<br />
system, in which local people can request specific<br />
books to be ordered in. Reducing social isolation is<br />
one of the Artz Centre’s main aims, offering a casual<br />
space in Up Holland for people to enjoy hot drinks<br />
and a good read, without pressure to necessarily<br />
take books away.<br />
Artz Centre Up Holland will gradually implement<br />
longer opening hours, aiming to be open for as<br />
long as six days a week. For more information and<br />
updates, visit www.artzcentre.co.uk
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