Maindee Library, Newport, was closed by the local authority in 2015. It was soon reopened by a determined volunteer collective called Maindee Unlimited, delivering more public services than ever before. Following a socially engaged art programme, Maindee Unlimited secured funding from Arts Council Wales and appointed architects George Lovesmith & Sarah Hollingworth to help them reimagine the building.
The first phase of building works took place between March and June 2018. It has not been a straight forward architecture project though. Open invitations were extended far and wide to bring as many people as possible into the spaces of production. These include community leaders creating learning and economic opportunities in processes of procurement and change, in order to nurture the sense of local ownership.
An ambition of enabling is embedded within with in these approaches and though risk factors are multiplied, opportunities to maximise on the potential, far outweigh anxieties of needing to be in control. Liberated from a sense that one might loose the upper hand or the fee income, the process becomes richer & the process has meaning because of a culture of community support, within which each one of us has a sense of belonging.