12 July 2024 – Chopping Club At The Libraries, Bootle

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The group were hosted by Niamh Riordan and Gregory Herbert who run the Chopping Club as part of the arts programme connected to Bootle and Sefton Libraries.

Niamh and Greg introduced the library and the progamme of creative activity that has taken place over the past three years. Artists and library-users have co-created projects – a collaborative press archive, a Bootle tapestry, a new wallpaper, community-wide skill shares, podcasts, feasts and library-cooked lunches, and a green oasis in Bootle Library. Every aspect of the project is developed through artist commissions and devised in response to how the library is used by the public. The disused outside space has recently been redeveloped with artist Harun Morrison, with L-shaped planters and long bench seating, as well as being home to a hive of bees! Anyone visiting the library can spend time in the space or engage with some of the groups that meet regularly for gardening, toddler sensory play and bee-keeping.

Greg and Niamh shared their plans for a new kitchen at the library to be a space that people can come and use, as well as thinking of the kitchen as a library in itself – what can a kitchen library lend? Could a kitchen lend equipment, bread makers, large mixers or even a stockpile of herbs and spices? Members of the public could come and borrow an item from the kitchen, take a teaspoon of spice or do some cooking in the kitchen to test out a new recipe without buying all the ingredients from scratch. There was interest and enthusiasm for the project with the community curators who connected it to reducing isolation and being a means to empower people to undertake their own learning.

After talking we made a big batch of fennel and radish pickle, chopping together and continuing the conversation. We ate some of the pickle fresh for lunch with tomato and fennel soup served in ceramic bowls that were made as part of a commission with Aliyah Hussain. We took the rest of the pickle back to Rochdale, each of the group putting a jam jar in their handbag or coat pocket to eat at home.