STORY CENTRES
Storytelling Special
Japanese architect Tadao
Ando inadvertently created an attraction with his concrete, wood and glass library
to digital media, has perhaps played a part in the development of story centres. “Twenty years ago it would have been inconceivable that there’d be any other place than a library to experience a wide range of children’s books and storytelling.” It seems that the threat posed to libraries has helped increase demand for these physical venues where parents and children can interact with one another.
DIGITAL STORYTELLER In Japan, a modern library built to serve three local preschools became a surprise visitor attraction. Created by the architect Tadao Ando in 2003, the Museum of Picture Books in Iwaki City proved hugely popular and in response now opens to the public every Friday. The 6,500sq ft (600sqm) building houses 1,300 picture books, each displayed face-out on the walls, like exhibits, with the bright book covers bringing the colour to the space. In London, an archive of illustrators’
work opened as a visitor attraction this year. The House of Illustration attracted huge attention through its launch exhibition of the work of founder Quentin Blake. In April, the Story Museum opened in Oxford, UK, a centre which started life as a virtual museum in 2003.
56 The Story Museum in Oxford opened in April 2014
Inside Stories: Quentin Blake was House of Illustration’s inaugural exhibition
“Telling a story may not seem like
education, but you’re learning language, sentence structure, speaking skills,” says co-director of the Story Museum, Kim Pickin. “Our educational programme is a bit like strawberries rather than spinach. One’s good for you but you don’t enjoy it, and the other’s good for you and delicious.” Now the museum is being turned into
a visitor centre. Currently it offers the immersive, multi-sensory 26 Characters exhibition, which tours next year. “We have a ‘digital storyteller’ in residence,”
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital
says Pickin, “to help us fi nd new ways to engage digital natives who’ve grown up with technology.” There’s also a tablet in each room, which plays extracts of different stories read by well-known actors or interviews with authors. “The digital revolution is all the more reason to support older forms of storytelling, such as oral storytelling and reading: children still need to develop their imaginations,” she says. “Our aim is to excite people of all ages about story.” See more story centres on page 58 and 60
AM 4 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014
PHOTOS: KEN LEE
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