By Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian
Alongside work to build our beautiful new Friends’ Cloister Gallery and Treasures Gallery, we are also being supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to establish a legacy of community collaborations and partnerships that will help us to welcome more people to the Cathedral and to engage with new audiences for many years to come.
Our new partnership with the Urban Learning Academy has been a source of immense personal joy for me. The Urban Learning Academy is an alliance of organisations that “facilitates community-based adult learning … empowering and transforming the lives of those who face the greatest challenges in connecting and engaging.” Most librarians I know would agree that empowering and transforming lives is precisely why libraries and librarians exist.
There is increasing demand for adult learning opportunities but so often courses are unaffordable, inflexible and inaccessible. Our pilot partnership project with the Urban Learning Academy offered learners a free four-week course on the Civil War with the flexibility to do as much or as little as they wanted.
We began with a tour of the Cathedral with our guide, Elizabeth Smith, followed by a super talk from historian Mark Stoyle, and a hands-on exploration of primary materials in the Exeter Cathedral Library and Archives, from lowly bell-ringing accounts to our magnificent copy of Henry VIII’s will. Mediating people’s connections with heritage is what we do best in the Library and Archives. For many, learning can feel irrelevant but everyone on the course talked enthusiastically about the personal connections they made through engaging with objects from the past. Objects bring history to life; as one learner remarked, “you’re not just reading about it, you can physically see it.”
Learners came with a variety of expectations – curiosity, a love of local history, or simply a desire to do something different. All remarked on the warm welcome they received – one even described a feeling of belonging. Another remarked: “It’s been such a privilege to sit here, and as I’m sure you can tell, I’ve loved it.” I hope they all come back for more; already we are planning future collaborative courses on the Reformation and on Women in the Archives.
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in making this partnership a success, particularly Mark Duckworth from the Urban Learning Academy. We look forward to working with you again.