Glass act sees writing on the wall at new library

Jun 12 2008 by David Whetstone, The Journal

THE first words are going into Newcastle’s spectacular new Central Library – but on the windows rather than in books on shelves.

They are part of an artwork by glass artist Kathryn Hodgkinson which is an integral part of the £40m building on the corner of New Bridge Street and John Dobson Street.

Kathryn, who studied at Sunderland University and has a studio in Newcastle, was commissioned by architects Ryder to help make the new building truly distinctive.

She posed four questions to more than 1,000 Newcastle residents: What makes you happy? What would you change? What do you fear? What gives you hope?

Along with her illustrations, the answers were screenprinted on to some of the panels making up the library’s enormous glass facade.

From outside, it is Kathryn’s illustrations of flowers and leaves you can see, following the staircase up the library’s several levels.

Inside you can read the answers to the questions, grouped thematically.

On the lowest level you can read about people’s fears.

They include “things going wrong, horribly wrong”, “getting shot”, “failure”, “being a proper grown-up” and even “pies, they freak me out”.

Kathryn said: “Global warming did feature but not as much as I thought it would. More people, it seems, are frightened of spiders.”

Among the things people said gave them hope were “my religion”, “chocolate”, “education” and “people”.

Kathryn, who gave birth to her third child while working on the project, said she wanted to reflect the fact that the library was an important civic building and that a lot of people would have ownership of it.

David Whetstone