Explore York Libraries and Archives Annual Review 2025-26 - Flipbook - Page 19
Helping York thrive
Explore community hubs provide free, accessible places to access
information, advice and support. During the year, we introduced
full-body health monitors at Clifton, Tang Hall and York Explore
Centres, helping residents check key health measures. Users
welcomed the service, praising its convenience.
Baby weigh-ins
A new self-service baby weighing station at
Clifton gave parents a convenient local place
to track their baby’s growth.
Families described this as a
brilliant community space.
Creative ways to involve
the community
Activities, such as STEAMpunk workshops,
supported engagement with digital and
creative making. Elsewhere, projects, such as
History Misbehaves, enabled participants to
work with archive material to produce new
creative outputs shared locally and through
broadcast channels.
Across this programme, activity focused
on participation, skills development and
partnership working, contributing to the role
of Explore Centres as accessible spaces for
cultural activity and community engagement.
Creative consumers
Sweet harmony
Young musicians gained confidence,
performance experience and a real sense
of achievement when they performed at the
Achievement and Celebration Day. The event,
which was co-hosted with York Music Hub at
Clifton Explore, received positive feedback from
schools and has prompted plans to make it a
regular programme.
“Brilliant facility in our local library
– we’re very impressed.”
“I think it’s a great idea to have it
here in the library. It’s somewhere
you can just use when you have five
minutes spare.”
Adults enjoyed flexing their creative skills
at the Creative Café at Clifton Explore.
Professional artists used archive collections
and local history to inspire participation,
social connection and wellbeing.
Participants described the sessions
as “warm, friendly and welcoming”
and said they felt:
99%
97%
96%
included
motivated
socially
connected
Explore Annual Review 2025/26
19
