Everyone is welcome at Southampton’s Learning Festival taking place at the City Art Gallery and Central Library this weekend, which “celebrates everything that’s great about learning for learning’s sake as well as for personal, family and community development”.
Residents are invited to the Gallery and Library on Saturday March 6 from 12pm-3pm where they’ll be able to follow an activity trail and have a go at everything from knitting to juggling, drawing to basic IT skills, genealogy to jewellery making. Organisers say they’ll be plenty for the whole family to try, as well as a prize draw — and it’s all for free.
The festival is a chance for those already taking part in informal learning to celebrate what they enjoy and for others to try something new.
The event has been organized by the Let’s Try Learning Exchange clubs, which are supported by Southampton City Council and Training for Work in Communities (TWICS) and are part of the Government’s Learning Revolution and vision for informal adult learning — learning for personal reasons, for pleasure, and for family and community development.
“Learning doesn’t stop as soon as you leave the traditional educational environment and this is a great initiative to get adults back in the learning habit. Trying your hand at something new is always rewarding and can really help to raise people’s self-esteem, as well as contributing to the community. I’d recommend anyone to get involved,” said Councillor Paul Holmes, Southampton City Council’s cabinet member for Children’s Services and Learning.
Carmel Herrigan, who got involved in the circus skills workshop at Lordshill library in January, said: “The informality is great. It genuinely feels like a let’s try activity, unlike some classes where it feels like everyone already knows everything!”
The range of learning and cultural exchanges that have taken place since Let’s Try set out to connect learners and sharers in January 2010 include arts, crafts, cooking, sewing, knitting, planting living willow, film making and circus skills workshops, and the list of activities and interests that people wish to share continues to grow.
For more information head over to www.letstry.org.uk or telephone 023 8067 1111.
Photo: Amanda Jahn