We’re pleased to share key findings from our Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music programme evaluation to highlight the impact of the exhibition for public libraries and their users.
11 Aug 2025
Since its launch in April 2024 our groundbreaking exhibition, celebrating 500 years of Black British music, has appeared in library spaces across the UK, drawing in new and diverse audiences and promoting libraries as cultural hubs. We’re pleased to share key findings from our Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music programme evaluation to highlight the impact of the exhibition for public libraries and their users.
Established in partnership with libraries in the UK the Living Knowledge Network is a network of national and public libraries that aims to democratise access to culture and heritage through working together. When Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music exhibition launched at the Library in St Pancras, it simultaneously opened as a panel display across partner libraries, creating a powerful cultural moment connecting national and public libraries.
Between April and August 2024 the exhibition toured to 31 library services across the UK, reaching 73 locations and engaging nearly 800,000 people.
As part of the exhibition programme, each library service planned their own tour across branch libraries, sometimes taking the panels to community settings like carnivals. Many created additional content too, including a Windrush exhibition at Huntingdon library, a Spotify playlist curated by Coventry library, a concert ticket stubs collection and digitisation project by Leeds, and many library partners made use of the interactive Museum in a Box, creating their own audio files for visitors to engage with.
Alongside the exhibition there was a full and varied programme of events, with library services curating their own unique programme from the Living Knowledge Network’s menu of streamed events, as well as libraries planning their own events such as music workshops and school performances in the library. We also supplied a quiz, which many libraries participated in.
The events programme alone engaged 7,719 people across 59 events. The exhibition was particularly successful in reaching people who are typically less engaged with arts and culture, making up 40% of the audience. It’s also significant that 47% of visitors strongly agreed that they would like to see more exhibitions or events at or hosted by libraries, showing the impact on individuals engaging with culture, leaving with an appetite for more.
The exhibition was also successful in attracting more diverse audiences, with 42% of the audience from a global majority.
86% of library staff respondents agreed that being part of the Living Knowledge Network attracts new audiences to their library. And library partners are committed to continuing to engage these new audiences, with 78% of library staff saying that they are bringing new voices into the planning or delivery of their programmes or services (39%) or are intending to (39%). As one staff member from a partner library noted:
“The underrepresented parts of our communities are an [engagement] aim and a huge priority for everybody. It's just given us all a different way of looking at that and making it like more co-production with the community....”
With extended rights to the exhibition content secured for two years after the main exhibition run in St Pancras, Living Knowledge Network partner libraries are continuing to use the panels and recorded events. Many libraries have already incorporated the materials into their Black History Month For example, Black History Month 2024 saw Bristol host Lunchtime Lecture: The Bristol Sound, multiculturalism and anti-racism, Cambridgeshire Libraries hosted a Reggae Day with the archive stream of The Pioneers and Reggae Revolutionaries, Edinburgh hosted a drumming workshop and blues singing workshop, and Warwickshire hosted a series of archive streams across the month.
Already the Library is aware of partner library services who are able to build on the partnerships developed through Beyond the Bassline, including Suffolk Libraries, who have supported Aspire Black Suffolk with a successful Arts Council England project grant bid to continue exploring Black British music through interactive exhibitions, live performances and more.
With 47% of attendees strongly agreeing they would like to see more exhibitions or events at libraries, the appetite for cultural activities is clear. The exhibition has demonstrated the power of libraries as cultural spaces that can reach new audiences, challenge perceptions and celebrate diverse histories. Its success marks just the beginning of more inclusive programming in libraries. As the panels continue to tour and inspire new programming, the exhibition's legacy will continue to grow across the UK.
For a copy of the full report email Alice.Hiller@bl.uk.