Last Writes - first announcement

The public library at Boot Mill, Eskdale, Cumbria

Last Writes

A Requiem for the Printed Word

Ebooks, Kindles, iPads – technology is transforming the way we write and the way books are published. But in the rush to grasp the digital future are we being too quick to throw away the rich heritage of 'real' books and the printed word? In a new exhibition at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont, freelance journalist Alan Cleaver celebrates 5,000 years of the written word and warns of relying too much on graphics and pixels.

Included in the exhibition will be:

• Cumbria's oldest piece of writing: a 6^th century lullaby that can still touch your heart
  
• Books for burning?: Not all books have been loved and some have been banned
  
• The art of calligraphy: Cumbria's finest calligraphers demonstrate how the written word can also be the beautiful word
  
• Libraries – an old-fashioned idea no longer needed or an valuable institution about to be reinvented and rediscovered? Cumbria's most beautiful library revealed – and what school libraries should look like.
  
• Hold the front page: Some of the best – and worst – headlines of the last 100 years
  
• The world's first ebook museum. You may think the ebook is brand spanking new. But meet the clumsy, cumbersome antique ebooks from the 1990s.
  

PLUS:

• Have a go at calligraphy – it's not as hard as it looks (although several years' practice won't go amiss)
  
• Remember typewriters? No nor do I. But come and have a go and rekindle the loving memory of crashing keys and end-of-line bells.

The exhibition will be at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont during April 2013. Admission free.