LEICESTER PEOPLE'S PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY: OFFICIAL OPENING

Chris Minter, Head of Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service; Cllr Manjula Sood, Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths; Sven Goran-Eriksson, Manager of Leicester City FC; Nicola Wood; The Birch - Leicester City FC legend Alan Birchenall

This afternoon I attend the official opening of the Leicester People's Photographic Gallery, which occupies most of what used to be the Central Lending Library on the corner of Belvoir Street and Wellington Street.

The old Central Lending Library is a former concert hall, where musical celebrities such as Paganini and Liszt performed in the mid-19th century. The entrance hall of the library was once a cinema, so today's visitor walks through what used to be a cinema into a what used to be a concert hall – then into what used to be a public library until six months or so ago. I ask three people (who should be in the know) what the building is going to be called in its new incarnation – and I get three different answers. For our present purposes, faithful reader, we'll stick with the old Central Lending Library when referring to the building as a whole, to Flint Hall (as it's going to be renamed, after the architect William Flint) for the as yet underdeveloped ground floor (although you have to go up a flight of stairs or take the lift to get to it) and the Leicester People's Photographic Gallery for the first floor, where the photos are. Never mind the temporary Bike Park in the basement! *Phew*

In his laudatory speech today, Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby described this as "a wonderful use for a magnificent building" – and he's right. Reliable sources at BBC Radio Leicester have stated that this is the biggest photographic exhibition space outside London. Apparently the bill presented to Leicester City Council for getting the building into a fit state to be open to the public was no more than £65 – so much has been achieved by volunteers and from donations. Well-deserved credit goes to Ian Davies, the driving force behind this whole enterprise. Thanks are also given to John E Wright, the commercial printers backing the gallery and providing professional presentation services.

The most striking feature in the (soon to be renamed) William Flint Hall is a sand sculpture by Nicola Wood. Nicola's work is well-known around her home city of Leicester and she's been gathering a following and reputation further afield. My kids have seen lots of her stuff and they love it. She did a great sand sculpture of Tanky Thomas at Summer Sundae last month. She's become known nationally as presenter of Deadly Art on CBBC. You can find out more about Nicola Wood on her website.

Prominent among the guests today is Sven-Göran Eriksson, Manager of Leicester City FC (and former Manager of England, of course). His presence brings a certain frisson to the event. Even I (a dyed-in-the-wool Scotland supporter) get unreasonably excited!

Among the refreshments available today, I'm pleased to see Rosie Clarke offering and promoting her Virtuous Bread. Rosie will be making use of the sizeable kitchen on the second floor of the building as part of her social enterprise. She asks me if I’d like a quick look at the facilities there, but then we discover that the kitchen has been taped off to visitors today to deter the more inquisitive among us. Rosie and I discuss how we might be able to collaborate during National Inter Faith Week at the end of November or during the week-long Leicester Speaks event in October. We put our heads together and come up with a couple of good ideas that we hope to able to develop, to our mutual benefit.

I'd like to acknowledge that I've adapted some information from Colin Crosby Heritage Tours for this blog entry.

A nice set of photos from the official opening can be found on Simon Johnson's Perfect Snapz website.

CREATIVECOFFEE CLUB, 7 SEPTEMBER 2011

At Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media Centre this morning, for the start of a new series of CreativeCoffee Club. This is the first one under the aegis of the new management committee, which has taken over from Jayne Childs, who coordinated these networking meetings for the past couple of years, since we moved to Phoenix Square from the Graduate Bar at De Montfort University. It's also the first meeting run directly by Phoenix Square, as ties with DMU have now been cut due to changes in the funding regime.

We had the first meeting of the management committee last week to agree on how this meeting should go and how we can develop in future. We agreed then that I'd give a brief introduction, reassuring old hands, welcoming new attendees and signposting our direction of travel. Other members of the management committee here today get the chance to identify themselves, say a little about why they're involved and what they hope to contribute to CreativeCoffee Club. There's a good turnout, with at least 25 people here (I know because I'm in charge of the register today).

A few of my own highlights this morning include people laughing at my jokes during my brief talk; confirming that I'm now the sole survivor from the old Graduate Bar sessions; meeting Rosie Clarke and finding out about her social enterprise, Virtuous Bread (and discussing how she might be able to do something with Leicester Council of Faiths related to our 25th anniversary); Carmen Gilfillan (of Stimulus Life Coaching) and I expending fruitless amounts of mental energy trying to figure out where we'd met before; talking with Rhiannon Dalton, Inclusion Development Worker at Leicester City Council, about possibilities for involving people with long term mental health issues.

In the photo above: Rahat Ahmed (left) with Rosie Clarke of Virtuous Bread.