Mythical Mazes

The Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge is an annual initiative inspiring young people to read 6 books during their summer holidays. At the end they receive a medal and certificate. It is run through libraries in conjunction with the Reading Agency. Find out more here

 There are competitions to enter, games to play, suggested books to read, and A Quest for Apollo by Rick Riordan to finish writing....

"Last year's theme was Creepy House with readers earning some spooky smelly stickers during the weeks of the Challenge, (the strange scent of the garlic sticker lingers with me to this day). I was leading workshops in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City libraries creating the creepy houses we would like to visit. Who knows what will appear in this summer's sessions?" Gordon: one of this year's workshop artists

In 2014, the theme is “Mythical Maze” and Derbyshire libraries has been successful in securing Arts Council and National Lottery funding to provide a range of  activities in libraries based around Derbyshire Myths and Legends. Libraries and workshops are already entered in this blog and more information, and exciting reports of the mazes we tread, the labyrinths we explore and the myths and legends we share will be posted here

Is there a mermaid in Mermaids pool? Who was Hob Hurst? 

Come along and learn more about some of these Derbyshire Legends 

and help us to make some new ones 

Hob Hurst? or just some passing boggart?

Images in this post:
Creepy House pop-ups from workshops last summer
a Boggart puppet by Gordon MacLellan

The legends are looming!

The Legends are looming

just getting to a workshop might take you
on strange and wonderful journeys...

In our previous blog entry, we listed a first wave of Derbyshire Myths workshops by library (from Alfreton to Gamesley). Here are the rest. Why not find the workshop nearest you and join us? Or perhaps you could find a workshop in a place you have never visited and make the journey to join us part of your own mythical maze and find some adventures to have on the way that might inspire you during our activities!

Find your library's details here. And you can visit the Derbyshire Summer Reading Challenge (SRC) page here, while the National SRC page is somewhere else, round the sharp corner of this maze, "...over here, turn round and walk backwards for a bit, watch out for the sleeping minotaur, and sure enough, here it is!

Library Date Artist Notes Glossop 29/7/14 All the artists! Special day! Hadfield 19/8/14 Gordon Hayfield 21/8/14 Gordon Holmewood 18/8/14 Maria Ilkeston 20/8/14 Maria Killamarsh 9/8/14 Gordon Long Eaton 5/8/14 All the artists! Special day! Matlock 26/8/14 Maria Melbourne 3/9/14 Maria New Mills 18/8/14 Gordon Old Whittington Tbc Gordon Pinxton 19/8/14 Maria Ripley 20/8/14 Maria Sandiacre 6/8/14 Maria Shirebrook 6/8/14 Debi Somercotes 9/8/14 Maria South Normanton 19/8/14 Maria Staveley 2/8/14 Gordon Swadlincote 3/9/14 Maria Whaley Bridge 21/8/14 Gordon Whitwell 11/8/14 Gordon Wingerworth Tbc Gordon Wirksworth 26/8/14 Maria Shirebrook 6/8/14 Debi Bolsover 6/8/14 Debi

Where two libraries are listed on the same day it's not because we are magical maze-runners (although we might be). There will be a morning session in one library and an afternoon in the other. Check with your library for details of times

We have three artists who will be working in the libraries:

Debi Hedderwick is a dance artist with a keen interest in animating stories through dance and theatre

Maria Whatton is an award-winning storyteller with a love of myths, folk tales and legends which she brings to life through performance

Gordon MacLellan (Creeping Toad) is a storyteller, artist and puppeteer with a keen interest in the environment

Add pause and reflect, who knows what mysteries lie
beneath the waters of still Derbyshire pools?

Individual artists will lead workshops in different libraries and there will be 4 days of grand spectacle and extra-fabulous workshops where all three artists will work together with visitors to create mazes of myths and labyrinths of legends….more details will follow

Rather than swamp everything with all the workshops at once, we'll publish workshops in three stages in this blog.

Workshops

• are free
• are aimed at 8 - 12 year olds and spaces are limited so
• places need booking.
• will either be morning or afternoon: there will be another workshop in a nearby library in the other half of the day

Myths on the horizon!

 Myths on the horizon

 

from ancient places to Victorian follies,
our stories might grow anywhere

legends might grow
from the smallest flower....

Through July and August 2014, Derbyshire Myths and Legends (DML) workshops will surface like sea serpents in libraries across the county. Linking the wider ideas and objectives of this year's Summer Reading Challenge's Mythical Maze* theme (and we'll talk more about this in a blog or two) with our own county, DML sessions will invite participants to hear stories from Derbyshire, invent their own stories (the myths no-one has ever heard before) and find creative ways of telling those stories

We have three artists who will be working on the project:

• Debi Hedderwick is a dance artist with a keen interest in animating stories through dance and theatre
• Maria Whatton is an award-winning storyteller with a love of myths, folk tales and legends which she brings to life through performance 
• Gordon MacLellan (Creeping Toad) is a storyteller, artist and puppeteer with a keen interest in the environment

...or wait for us in
the reflections of a still pool

Individual artists will lead workshops in different libraries and there will be 4 days of grand spectacle and extra-fabulous workshops where all three artists will work together with visitors to create mazes of myths and labyrinths of legends….more details will follow

Rather than swamp everything with all the workshops at once, we'll publish dates and venues of workshops in three stages.

Workshops

• are free
• are aimed at 8 - 12 year olds and spaces are limited so places need booking.
• will either be morning or afternoon: there will be another workshop in a nearby library in the other half of the day

Contact your local library to book a place and to check times: find details for your local library through the county library service

Hawthorn trees gather legends
like honeybees

Library	Date	Artist
Alfreton	9/8/14	Maria
Ashbourne	30/7/14	All the artists!
Belper Bolsover	23/8/14 6/8/14	Maria Debi
Borrowash	6/8/14	Maria
Brimington	11/8/14	Gordon
Chapel-	19/8/14	Gordon
Chesterfield	1/9/14	All the artists!
Clay Cross	18/8/14	Maria
Clowne	28/8/14	Gordon
Creswell	28/8/14	Gordon
Dronfield	9/8/14	Gordon
Duffield	23/8/14	Maria
Eckington	2/8/14	Gordon
Gamesley	18/8/14	Gordon

stories of our landscape have been told for many years

Highlighted dates are two of our all day excitements! plunge into a maze of imaginations with our team of creative labyrinth-workers!

The Reading Agency and Libraries present 

Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge 2014

Images: pictures from this blog include:

• Solomon's Temple, Grin Low, Buxton
• orchid on Grin Low
• Blackwater at Calke Abbey, Ticknall
• Hawthorn tree on Grin Low
• The River Wye - an image from the Enlightenment! project by Derbyshire Museums

If you have exciting pictures we might use, we'd be pleased to see them (but make no promises!)

TEST POST

This is a holding page for the blog of the exciting Derbyshire Myths and Legends projects running through the summer of 2014. Organised by the Derbyshire Library Service, workshops and wild events will be taking place in libraries across the county......more details will follow!