The Reader Organisation at the Festival of the World

This summer, the Southbank Centre in London is hosting a Festival of the World, made up of many smaller festivals which will show how art is changing the world. The Reader Organisation is privileged to have been chosen by the Southbank Centre as one of the projects they wish to highlight and we’re taking part in a number of their special events.

First up, on Monday June 25^th, our director Jane Davis will be joining other inspirational change-makers, such as Alain de Botton and Camila Batmanghelidjh to lead a day of conversations, performances and calls to action. The Festival of the World Summit: Art Will Change the World will explore how art can bring about social change through a mixture of bite-sized sessions and presentations. Tickets are available to purchase on the Southbank website.

Following this is the Poetry Parnassus, set to be the biggest poetry festival in the UK. Running from 26^th June until 1^st July, poets and spoken-word artists from all the Olympic countries will come together to take part in workshops, readings, and discussions, with each contributing a poem in their own language. On Thursday 28^th June, we will be running A Reading Revolution with The Reader Organisation in the Royal Festival Hall where visitors can drop in throughout the day to read the Olympic poems. This event is absolutely free so please do come along – we’d love to see you!

During the festival, the Southbank Centre transforms into a bustling port city with projects and ideas imported and exchanged across the globe. To represent this, Lyn Atelier has designed an art installation as a series of packing crates which appear to have washed up on the banks of the Thames, each telling the story of an art organisation transforming a community. Inside one of these crates, pictured here, you will find The Reader Organisation with some great pictures and quotes from our Get Into Reading members. A visit to the Festival of the World Museum inside the centre will also explain more about the artworks themselves and tell you more about our story.

What a programme! The festival, including our packing crate, continues until 9^th September, so if you do find yourself in London over the summer, why not take a walk down to the south bank and pay us visit?

Find out more about the Festival of the World here.