Created on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 11:34 am.
Related to Quests
A story of local heritage wins first prize for Stoke-on-Trent Museums in the Children & the Arts StoryQuest Storytelling competition.
Stoke on Trent Museums Service has won a competition run by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts as part of Children & the Arts’ festival of storytelling; StoryQuest. The winning venue is to be awarded a site-specific storytelling performance piece performed by one of the original members of the world renowned group The Company of Storytellers.
The museums’ winning story aimed to keep local heritage alive in a story filled with tales of workers in the pottery industry, told in the traditional pottery dialect by the fictional character Toby Jugg. Set against the backdrop of a tent in the shape of the iconic bottle oven and the Fenton Park fireworks display, the story highlighted the city’s history as a thriving centre of the ceramic industry.
Denise Lambert, Learning and Outreach Officer for Stoke-on-Trent Museums Serviec said: “We are thrilled to have won such a fantastic competition. It is so important for people to share stories and learn about their heritage through this oral tradition. Our storyteller explains the techniques and skills used by the resilient people who worked in the tough but creative pottery industry. Such skills were passed down verbally, from generation to generation. This is why storytelling is so appropriate for local people to understand the importance of Stoke-on-Trent as an industrial giant. Our small tent in the iconic shape of a bottle oven provides a fun, striking backdrop to the stories.”
Rebecca Eastmond, Director of The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts said: “We are delighted to award The Stoke-on-Trent Museums Service first prize. Their entry addressed exactly what StoryQuest is all about; the importance of passing down our shared cultural heritage through stories and the oral tradition.”
StoryQuest is a festival of storytelling which reminds children, families and communities of the joys of oral traditions and the importance sharing of stories. The festival which ran throughout November 2007 encouraged cultural venues across the UK to open up their doors and unexplored corners of their buildings to host story telling events and encouraged families to share their own heritage and family stories.
The specially commissioned piece will be performed at the Stoke-on-Trent Museums Service over five days later on in 2008. Dates are yet to be confirmed, but for further information on Stoke-on-Trent Museums Service and the Outreach Service please contact Nerys Williams on 01782 235399 or Victoria Martin on 01782 235522 or email museum.outreach@stoke.gov.uk.
For more information on The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts, or any press enquires please contact Jess Fletcher on 0207 379 9747, 07912 123 795, or email jessica.fletcher@childrenandarts.org.uk
- Notes to Editors –
· The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts works in partnership with the arts to create high quality artistic experiences for children. We target those children who would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience the arts and we will work with around 27, 000 children in 2007/2008.
· Children & the Arts is one of The Prince’s Charities, a group of not-for-profit organisations of which The Prince of Wales is President; 16 of the 18 Charities were founded personally by The Prince. The group is the largest multi-cause charitable enterprise in the United Kingdom raising over £100 million annually.
· The organisations are active across a broad range of areas including opportunity and enterprise, education, health, the built environment, responsible business, the natural environment and the arts. The charities reflect The Prince of Wales’s long-term and innovative perspective, and seek to address areas of previously unmet need.
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