Touring artworks to libraries : Old Library, Trinity College Dublin

Touring artworks, exhibitions or performances to different libraries can offer an efficient way for libraries to bring in newly commissioned work without having to bear the full spectrum of production costs and management. As a result, libraries can book existing work by artists to visit their space for a set time and build on the marketing and publicity that the wider tour might be getting.

An example is the artwork Gaia, an enormous luminescent sphere representing Earth, which among its tour of cathedrals, museums, universities and international biennials is spending a year being installed at the Old Library in Trinity College Dublin. It offers library visitors a unique opportunity to engage with the world-renowned artwork, while it can capitalise on the popularity of the tour and offer an additional paid ticketing income stream for the college library.

In the UK, the National Rural Touring Forum set up an experimental project which toured performance works – from theatre and dance to immersive audio experiences – to various libraries in rural areas of England, including Lancashire, Devon, Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire and Surrey. This Touring Arts in Libraries programme aimed to help libraries to diversify their audiences by touring new and different work to libraries who would usually not access these works. The project resulted in a series of case studies and toolkits that aimed to contribute learning to the library sector and rural libraries in particular.