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June 2011 ALL DIFFERENT, ALL EQUAL!
Over 20,000 people participated in the Respect Festival 2011; Exeter’s annual celebration of diversity.
The 2 day event saw a host of performers delighting the public with music, art, performance art and workshops. Top bands and performers graced the Community Stage and World Big Top stage providing an assorted collection of world music including Latin, Cuban, Reggae & Eastern European. Bands included 3 Daft Monkeys, Peachy Farmer, Pooja Angra, The FOS Brothers, Hazaar, Zambula and lots more acts.
The days festivities were jammed packed with various activities throughout Belmont Park. Areas dedicated to healing, community & campaigns, food & drink and market stalls to keep the festival-goers jolly and entertained. Book-Cycle also attended with our book marquee, promoting the various aspects of our charity work and providing a beautiful chill out space for the festival’s book worms. Over the 2 day event we managed to raise an amazing £900, which will go towards our library building projects in Ghana over the summer months. Paul Giblin - Respect Organiser
Many thanks to all those that attended the festival especially the people who came into our tent, bought books and helped us to further our projects. We love you!
Eager book worms and donations received from book sales!
May 2011 Pop-Up Theatre presents: 'Shelf Life'  Exeter Uni drama student's production on the importance of reading saw an impressive display of artwork made by care home residents, discussion by children from a local primary school and short interpretive performances inspired by famous children’s books. The original concept was inspired by the current economic climate in which local libraries are losing their funding. This led to discussions about the importance of books, and the repercussions there would be if libraries would close across the country. What knowledge and stories would be missed? “As a result of working with Book-Cycle, we have taken on their ethos of sustainable living and its importance. Everything we have used has either been handmade by us or borrowed from the Drama Dept at Exeter University, Book-Cycle or from our own homes. The books we have transformed in to a World. Our props and set were items due to be recycled and we have given them a new lease of life. Pop-Up Theatre xx.” NO BOOKS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS SHOW!
April 2011 Ghana Library Builds The start of something beautiful. Volunteers spent a week sorting and parcelling books to commence our library building project with Thrive Africa UK and rural villages in Ashanti. We’ve just sent 2 pallets of educational books destined for the port of Tema, where they will then be transported to the project base in Kumasi awaiting volunteers from Thrive Africa UK to set to work revamping and building library facilities. Over the summer months we will be sending a container of books to help furnish 16 libraries in rural Ghana. Allowing children much needed access to recreational & educational resources. WATCH THIS SPACE!
Tools for eager young minds. Potential mathematicians or budding rockstars!
March 2011 Developing Links:
Trinity Yard School & Bicton College  Environmental education students from Bicton College, Devon have returned from a 3000 mile, two week trip to Trinity Yard School in Ghana. The group built two compost toilets, and held environmental and sustainable education sessions on turtle conservation, soil nutrition and global citizenship, encouraging the school students to explore these issues using creative and interactive methods such as group discussions, painting banners and collecting debris from the shore to demonstrate the life cycle of the turtle. Prior to the start of the trip a few Bicton students visited Book-Cycle to collect educational books to assist them with the teaching sessions. Book-Cycle will be looking to support Trinity Yard School in the future with our container shipment to Ghana during the summer. As of now, teachers at the school are running classes out of the wings whilst putting the finishing touches to new classrooms and a library for its students. The shipment will provide many resources allowing for a more productive and prosperous studying environment.
The Trinity Yard School was established to serve the youth in Cape Three Points, Ghana, by providing a fee-free secondary education with a primary focus on skills training in arts-oriented trades. The school aims to create a diversified learning environment involving students in many extra-curricular activities such as a drum and dance group, soccer team, and a student-run organic vegetable and fruit farm.
The vision in creating the school is to allow the motivated youth of Cape Three Points and neighboring villages to improve their literacy and continue their academic education while at the same time acquiring valuable skills in trades that will enable them to earn a living.
August 2010
Art Liberates Warehouse DIY, Friday 17th September to Saturday 16th October, Warehouse on Water Lane, Exeter Surface Arts, working in partnership with Book Cycle, present DIY, a site specific exhibition which liberates a derelict warehouse awaiting development on Water Lane near Exeter Quay side. DIY will be a cross art form exhibition multi art disciplines on a huge scale. The work will range from sculpture to performance all involving interactive processes and participation. Surface Arts have created this stimulating exhibition and has invited artists to Exeter in order to respond to this redundant space.All materials used in this exhibition will be sourced from the site; all artists will work on their own initiatives with limited funds.The nationally identified artists are Adam Garrett, Chiara Gill, Hanna Downing, James Burgess, Jessica Mautner, Jo Willoughby, Julie McCalden, Mark Houghton, Megan Hoggins, Michele Louise Schiocchet and Sarah Farmer. This exhibition aims to question artist led activities within this time of financial instability and asks if this way of creating new independent opportunities is now becoming essential. The traditional gallery and studio cannot always respond to the interactive processes of artistic production so this gives artists a chance to develop and realise site specific, performance, ephemeral or time based works and much more.A short residency or ‘collabortory’ period for artists will take place in the warehouse prior to the exhibition opening. This provides an opportunity for the artists to work together and allows them to produce work that is truly responsive to the site.  The show aims to create a non-alienating environment where artists and the public can engage in a meaningful exchange of art and ideas. The productive space of the working artist as a site of valuable, visual and intellectual interaction will be in plain sight to the public, creating a more holistic creative and exhibition space.DIY will open with a celebration of live music, performance and art on Friday 17th September from 7pm until 10pm. We welcome everyone to enjoy the evening and celebrate the launch with complementary drinks and a chance to meet the artists and see the space that will be a hub of activity for four weeks. DIY will run for four weeks form Friday 17th September until Saturday 16th October and will be open to the public Thursdays to Saturdays 10am to 6pm and Sundays 11am to 4pm or by appointment please ring Katie Hawker on 07812566759. The exhibition will have a positive impact on Exeter and will highlight artist led activity happening in the area. Part of a rolling exhibition program being developed for the warehouse in collaboration with Book Cycle and will also form the first of the ongoing site specific projects being pursued by Surface Arts. www.surfacearts.co.uk 
August 2010
Artists Invigorate Empty Industrial Unit
on Water Lane IT MAY not be Tate Modern but a group of Exeter artists are transforming an empty industrial unit into a vibrant art house. Where the Tate emerged out of a disused power station, the Exeter project is being created out of a less than salubrious old warehouse off Water Lane, near the canal. But with a little colour, a lot of imagination and a fair bit of elbow grease the team of artists from Surface Arts are bringing dereliction to dramatic life. The holes in the roof, the mountains of cardboard boxes and the forlorn hanging lights have all been forgotten under the boundless enthusiasm of project manager Katie Hawker, 27. Katie, a leading light in Exeter Visual Arts, advertised nationwide for artists to join her at Water Lane, and was able to pick her top 10. She said: "We arrived on Monday and spent time exploring the space, deciding who would want to go where. Book-Cycle Art Space "Everyone is really keen and enthusiastic and not at all downhearted by what they saw, because the concept of DIY is a reaction to a time of financial instability, an artist-led response to see what we can do with very little." We will be making articles from materials on site and even our artist will be joining in, using her own paints and canvas, and painting various bird's eye views of the site. "It is really nice to have a big artistic project under way in Exeter, and we have enjoyed the support of so many, with the Co-op and the Let's Do cafe in Fore Street providing us with lunches, tea and coffee and Stagecoach even giving us free bus tickets. "It is wonderful how everyone is so supportive." Setting up the exhibition from scratch is set to take four weeks, with a private opening set for Friday, September 17. DIY opens to the public the following day and will be open Thursdays to Saturdays from 10am to 6pm and on Sundays, 11am to 4pm, until Saturday, October 16. The show will be open by appointment at other times by contacting Katie on 07812 566759. The artists involved in the project are Adam Garrett, Chiara Gill, Hanna Downing, James Burgess, Jessica Mautner, Jo Willoughby, Julie McCalden, Mark Houghton, Megan Hoggins, Michele Louise Schiocchet and Sarah Farmer. Surface Arts is a not-for profit organisation. For more details contact info@surfacearts.co.uk
March 2010
Container of Books Heads to Africa
ENOUGH books to fill a small library headed out of Exeter for Africa, thanks to staff at a special city bookshop. Book-Cycle, a charity bookshop in West Street, put together a container-load of books for Ghana, donated by local primary schools and Exeter College.
The shop is working with Thrive Africa on the project which will see volunteers help communities with health and sanitation workshops and establish school libraries. It collects unwanted books and readers can come along and choose up to three books per person per day and pay whatever they wish. alf the proceeds are used to send relevant literature to developing countries, while the other half goes to planting trees around Britain. For Ghana: Erika Fulton, Roxy Piper, Freyja Honey- Letsch
and Katharine Clissold with the Book-Cycle collection
April 2009 Plea for Books to go to Africa AN Exeter book shop is appealing for children's books to send to Africa. Book-Cycle, based at 7, West Street, is a charity which collects unwanted and surplus books. It has organised a free load to Mombasa, Kenya, and is anxious to make the most of it. Books, educational and recreational, for children aged five to 15, are needed in the next three weeks.
The books can be taken to the shop and more details are available on 01392 420021 or enquiries@book-cycle.org.
October 2008
Charity Shop Spreading the Word in Print
IT's an unusual approach for a shop to allow the customer to decide the prices. But then Book Cycle in Exeter is no ordinary business. Since May 2007, the shop in West Street, opposite The House That Moved, has housed a library of second-hand books. However, it does not sell the books, but gives them away in exchange for a donation.
Customers can set the price — whether it is 10p or £10. Even more unusually, all the money raised is put straight back into funding charitable projects. Half of the cash donated goes towards sending books to libraries and schools in Africa, while the other half goes to tree-planting schemes in the UK. Book Cycle is the idea of Anthony Melling, 31, who opened the venture after he noticed many books were going to waste in the UK. He said: "I realised that a huge amount of perfectly good books in this country were being poured into landfill sites, whereas in Africa and much of the developing world people — especially schools — are desperate for books."The average school in a lot of areas in Africa has just four books, and these are usually completely irrelevant to the children's needs."Anthony and his dedicated team of volunteers rescue books before they are sent to landfill. They sort through them and send those that they think are relevant to schools in Africa. The remainder are sold in Book Cycle. But the volunteer team also happily accept donations of unwanted books."Lots of the books come from the general public, but some charity shops donate their own overflow of books as well. Age Concern, Oxfam and PDSA are particularly generous," explained Anthony."We try and send a parcel to Africa daily. We keep it to less than four kilos, as it gets around the person having to pay duty at the other end. Each parcel can take up to five and a half months to get to a project, but there's no real rush."I send books to libraries, orphanages, schools and community projects in Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Nigeria at the moment, but I'm not restrictive — in fact, I will send books to anyone who needs them." Book Cycle has two floors, one of which is dedicated to fiction and the other to non-fiction and an impressive collection of children's books.With a comfy sofa to read and relax on, and a computer with free internet access, visitors are made to feel at home.There is also an outdoor courtyard, enabling customers to read books in the fresh air. It has a small stage, where performances, workshops and spoken word evenings are held. The shop, which has recently opened a a sister branch in Brighton, also runs a new initiative called Shelf-Cycle. It works by providing books for cafes and restaurants in Exeter, and operating on the same basis as in the shop itself — you can take up to three books a day and donate what you like for them at the till when paying your bill. In addition to this the team also holds 'Bring Your Own Art' exhibition evenings and juggling sessions. Antony said: "We are a 100 per cent non-profit making charity and try to provide our customers with some interesting evenings too. So I hope new people will come in and see what we are all about." Shop opening times vary but in general are from mid-morning to 7.30pm. For more information call 01392 420021 or visit www.book-cycle.org. 
October 2008
Book your Place to Learn Circus SkillsALL the fun of the circus came to an Exeter book shop to introduce visitors to the joys of juggling and other skills. Mike Dickinson, who has been juggling for around 12 years, took the session at Book Cycle and encouraged people to come along to future ones.He said: "I will teach people circus skills such as juggling, poi and show them how to use a staff too."Anyone can come along. In fact, the more people there are the better. I help out at Book Cycle from time to time and it is best if people come in and find out when the next session is. I am keen on getting more people juggling in Exeter and might even start a group."
Matt Defoe, a volunteer at the shop, said: "The sessions have been good fun and everyone who volunteers here enjoys it". For more information, either visit the shop on West Street or call 01392 420021. A bring-your-own art show is being staged in Exeter this weekend. The event, at the St Sidwell's Centre, Sidwell Street, between 11am and 5pm today and Sunday, is being organised by city charity Book Cycle. A spokeswoman said: "We want everybody who can to bring things they have made."
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