Art Unites: Our Stories - Amersham Library
Art Unites: Our Stories was an Arts Council funded project aiming to connect Buckinghamshire residents to their local history through visual arts. The goal was to work with artists to create pieces of art inspired by the towns of Amersham, Bourne End, Princes Risborough and Marlow respectively, with this art being housed in the library it was made in. Subsequently, an exhibition would tour the libraries, to connect these four towns alongside the project, with the exhibition art being donated to schools and community centres who worked on the project.
Over the course of the project, participants had the opportunity to interact with the artists through a series of workshops, as well as get hands on with history through sessions provided by local museums and the county archives. Amersham’s artwork was also influenced by a visit to Chesham Bois CofE school.
Kremena taking a workshop at Chesham Bois CofE School
Amersham’s artwork was led by Kremena Dimitrova. It was inspired by and uses the art created by the participants at all the workshop sessions. It focuses on Amersham’s rich cultural history, with several references to local Victorian creatives George ward, a photographer, and Louise Jopling, an artist. It also includes references to the Amersham martyrs, and the subsequent martyrs plays, that many local people get involved in.
Kremena said that “[t]he workshops were varied and playful. I introduced a range of art activities, techniques, and materials from monoprinting to watercolours and erasure poetry, which provided many opportunities for experimentation. Having planned the workshops to cater for different audiences, I was happy to see a range of age groups joining the sessions. Many of the younger attendees wanted to take their creations home with them which is a testament to how much they liked their artworks.”
“This has been an exciting and much-needed arts-based project using creativity to bring communities together. Children and adults alike enjoyed hours of artmaking in their local libraries where they could meet, talk, and make together, building on existing skills while learning new techniques. It has been a great pleasure collaborating with the local communities, libraries, and Buckinghamshire Council and I hope we will work on many more similar initiatives in the future. I am particularly excited about our co-creations travelling across Buckinghamshire for everyone to see!”
Art Unites: Our Stories ran from October 2024 to May 2025. We are incredibly grateful to all the participants who took part, to our artists Maura Hawkes and Emily Cooling and lead artist Kremena Dimitrova and the Buckinghamshire Libraries team.