Reclaiming the Curriculum by Bill Laar

Author:Bill Laar [Bill Laar and Jackie Holderness]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785833656
Publisher: Crown House Publishing
Published: 2018-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Making spaces for story

Distinct from the academic environment that is inextricably linked with the demands and anxieties of measurable achievement, there are a range of cultural venues across England which develop the concept of reading for pleasure by realising engagement with story and creative writing in tangible ways. These places include, among others: Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford, east London (opened in 2004); Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books in Newcastle (opened in 2005); the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire (opened in 2005); the Ministry of Stories in Hackney (opened in 2010); and the Institute of Imagination in London (founded in 2011, due to open in 2020).

Bridging libraries, museums, arts organisations and theatres, these story-focused venues respond to an increasing need to make central the universal and timeless powers of the imagination, critical thinking and human interaction. The timing of this phenomenon seems more than simply correlation with the cultural climate, characterised by features often seen as acting to the detriment of the imagination: controversial curriculum changes, the rise of the digital experience and, most recently, the sprawl of fake news across social media. The Story Museum in Oxford hopes to play a vital role within this new sector.

For the first five years, the Story Museum ran creative learning projects in schools and communities in the most disadvantaged areas of Oxford, using storytelling to raise literacy levels and achieve other learning and social impacts, captured by extensive evaluation. Having established a need for the services we offer and having proved the effectiveness of our approach, in 2009 the team acquired the lease on a dilapidated set of buildings in central Oxford and began planning for their transformation into a world-class museum of story.

In 2014, the Story Museum opened a semi-redeveloped home and began a rolling public programme of exhibitions and activities, focused on creating fantastic encounters with stories in all forms. Since then, we have welcomed over 100,000 people – mostly families, children and young people – to enjoy the museum and to create and share stories of their own. We also continue to run targeted projects in local schools and communities around Oxfordshire which are challenged by economic and educational disadvantage.

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