Fife's Arts Champion

Pauline Smeaton, an employee for Fife Cultural Trust (ONFife), has been selected as the winner of Best Arts Champion – Local Authority or Cultural Trust Worker in the 2020 Hearts for the Arts Awards.

Pauline’s passion for literacy and creativity is well recognised. She has dedicated her library career to engaging young people in reading for pleasure. Pauline has 30 schools and 7 libraries within her remit, and her active promotion of libraries and literacy for children and families has created a much-valued reading ethos.

Huge congratulations to Pauline from Culture Counts and our members!

It would be hard to find someone more passionate about libraries and literacy, and more enthusiastic about spreading that passion, than Pauline. More than anything, she has managed to create a presence for books and reading in an area where library closures have hit hardest.  

Susie Dent: lexicographer, etymologist, host of Countdown’s ‘Dictionary Corner’

The awards celebrate the unsung heroes of Local Authorities and Trusts who are championing the arts, often within a climate of severe financial challenges.

The awards presented by Samuel West at the Local Government Association’s Annual Culture and Tourism Conference, on Monday 2 March 2020. Learn more by visiting forthearts.org.uk/campaigns/hearts-for-the-arts/