CHILDREN in Leicester are being invited to nominate their favourite books to be included in a new mural.<\/p>\n
Ayana\u2019s Mural\u00a0will feature an illustrated bookcase winding up the stairs of the Central Library, and children from across Leicester can share their love of reading by nominating their favourite books for inclusion in the final mural design.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of a visual art and reading project running from now until World Book Day, in March 2026. The project is named after Leicester schoolchild Ayana, who tragically passed away in January 2023.<\/p>\n
To take part, nominations can be made online<\/a> anytime between now and the end of December. A series of schools\u2019 workshops will also capture children\u2019s creative ideas.<\/p>\n And this half-term, children aged 5-15 are invited to join a public workshop at the Central Library, running from 2-4pm on Monday 20 October. The free workshop will be led by writer and poet John Berkavitch, who was poet in residence at Glastonbury earlier this year, and will feature fun ways for children to express their ideas through writing and drawings.<\/p>\n Places at the workshop are limited, so booking is recommended<\/a>, and children must be accompanied by an adult.<\/p>\n Once ideas have been gathered, Hinckley-born artist Peachzz<\/a> has been commissioned to create the large-scale mural, with a launch event planned close to World Book Day<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n Yuki, Ayana\u2019s mum, applied to Arts Council England for funding for the project. She said: \u201cAyana was an avid reader, whose love of stories, people and life will be honoured through this mural. I can\u2019t wait to see the ideas and recommendations that Leicester children come up with, so that we can create something together that truly celebrates the magic of children\u2019s literature and the wonderful public spaces of Leicester\u2019s libraries.\u201d<\/p>\n Assistant city mayor for culture, libraries and community centres, Cllr Vi Dempster, said: \u201cSharing Ayana\u2019s joy of books and reading in this way is a lovely tribute to her.<\/p>\n \u201cOur libraries are a wonderful resource for children and young people, and this fantastic new artwork will be an eye-catching addition to the Central Library, leading families towards the children\u2019s section upstairs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to collaborating with the children of Leicester to create a lasting mural to inspire children to read for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Ayana\u2019s Mural will be funded by a \u00a314,500 National Lottery project grant from Arts Council England and by a \u00a33,000 contribution from Leicester City Council\u2019s Cultural Ambition Fund.<\/p>\n To find out more about the project, to book on to the workshop<\/a> and for children to nominate books, visit https:\/\/bookfinder.leicester.gov.uk\/ayana-s-mural-project<\/a><\/p>\n ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHILDREN in Leicester are being invited to nominate their favourite books to be included in a new mural.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-84082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}