Welcome to My Story - a community art festival presented by Hertfordshire Library Service.
My Story takes your true stories and tells them in art for the whole community to enjoy.
Focussing on stories of being a young person trying to find your way in the world, emerging young artists work with professional artists and create new works of art which are showcased in Hertfordshire's libraries.
My Story is a project funded by Arts Council England and presented by Hertfordshire Library Service, in partnership with Nysa Projects, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS), YC Hertfordshire, and Hertfordshire based artists.
During the summer of 2019 members of the Hertfordshire community wrote short stories about their experiences of being young and growing up which you can read on the page below. These stories were used as inspiration in a series of creative workshops at HALS, Hertford and Oxhey Libraries during August and September 2019.
The artwork produced, including music, paintings, video animations, 3D sculptures, installations, a play script, letters and poetry (not to mention the stories themselves) were showcased in a micro-fest at Hertford and Oxhey Libraries during Libraries Week in October 2019.
The artwork then went on tour around several Hertfordshire libraries through the winter and spring 2020:
- Central Stocks and Performing Arts Library November 2019 – 10th December 2019
- Bishops Stortford 11th December 2019- 14th January 2020
- Stevenage 15th January 2020- 10th February 2020
- North Watford 11th February 2020- 9th March 2020
- Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies from 10th March 2020 - 30th May 2020
In April 2020, we once again invited the community of Hertfordshire to share their stories. Against the background of COVID-19 lockdown, we have been sharing these stories online and using stories to bring people together. We hope to be able to hold some more creative workshops either online or in person in 2021.
To learn more about the project you can also listen to the interview Kerry Lanigan from Nysa Projects did with Radio Dacorum which was broadcast on 11th September 2019 or the interview recorded for Radio Verulam in May 2020.
If you would like to find out more information about the My Story project, or if you have your own story to share, please email mystory@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
