Wednesday 10 January 2007

Youth of today



It's all binge drinking, ecstacy, ASBOS, Parental advisory and pimping your ride.

Or is it?

It seems not, at least going by the 60 or so attendees at last night's art exhibition in County Hall.
There they were, genuine teenagers, complete with Slipknot hoodies and striped tights celebrating their own contibution to a programe of art and creative writing which has taken place in libraries across Swansea over the last year.

They have made masks, painted tiles, written poems and stories, illustrated books and painted huge panels which look like the work of Pablo Picasso's Aboriginal ancestor.

It's what I love about libraries - the versatility, the contribution to the cultural life of the community, the element of surprise and, of course, the keeping of teenagers off the streets.

And - it was literature related, which is the main thing. So many libraries these days seem to consider just about anything to get teenagers through the doors - no matter how divorced from the service they're actually about.

No bugs in evidence (wrong demographic), but there was a fine cake.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's pimping your ride?(!)

Swansea Libraries said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimp_my_ride

Anonymous said...

Looks like Swansea Libraries have been 'Pimping their premises'. Funky colours, better seating areas, excellent books, dvds and computers. Pity there's no Playstations or X-box games but who knows that may come in time. Great work, keep it up.