Chris Riddell comes to see Many Ways To Tell A Story

Children's Laureate Chris Riddell came to see our exhibition at Hove Museum so we just had to tell you about it...

Thank you to Chris Riddell for this hand drawn poster

It was very special to have Chris Riddell - children's laureate and successful, talented illustrator - visiting our exhibition. Knowing that he must be very busy we were delighted that he was so generous with his time.  It was fun walking around and talking with him as he commented on the art work and gave professional advice in a warm and self deprecating way. He also shared his fond memories of bringing his children to Hove Museum when they were small.

Chris even made this poster to help spread the word - we hope you can come and see this 'magical exhibition' for yourself.

The show is all about stories told in many ways and because of the variety of work, it appeals to all ages. We are very keen to spread the word about Hove Museum too because if you haven't experienced this gem of a museum yet you are really missing a treat.

Chris discussed doing an event with Fabula in the near future (exciting!) - we will keep you posted!

Fabula Workshops at Hove Museum

The next workshop "Toy Stories"at Hove museum will be at 10.30 on Saturday 28th January. 

This is a creative workshop for children aged 7+ based on making story books inspired by characters in the toy collection and throughout the museum. Further details from:

http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/hove/whats-on/#!toy-stories or at the end of this post.

Read about our previous two creative workshops to get an idea of what to expect!....

Crackers!

Before Christmas families enjoyed this story-themed workshop at Hove Museum. Everyone had seen our exhibition Many Ways To Tell A Story beforehand (still on until May 9th at Hove Museum) and they were ready for some of their own story making.  Grown ups joined in and it was a lively family session!

The tables were laden with making materials, wrapping papers, foil, sequins, glitter, ribbons and glue as well as an abundance of recycled toilet rolls! Time to make some Christmas crackers!

Families in the process of making and two children show their crackers off proudly

Fabula member Juliette Rajak kicked off the proceedings by explaining how these were going to be different from normal Christmas crackers - how the children could use small toy animals, worry dolls, pom poms and their imaginations for inspiration to help them come up with stories to put inside.

Some children did lots of writing while others mainly made images. You could almost see the brain activity as the children started thinking about how they were going to tackle it - and it was tackled in as many different ways as there were children in the room. Some told touching tales about animals inspired by the worry dolls. There were stories that were based on fairy tales - perhaps inspired by the exhibition. There was a three-dimensional story with a secret part, a comic strip with no words, a miniature book made to go into the cracker - and more.  The whole room was sparkling with children's ideas (and glitter)!

One child carefully writes her story

The story, written and illustrated

Then we explained how to make the crackers themselves - placing the cracker snap inside, wrapping, twisting, a little bit of ribbon and hey presto!

Each cracker was individually crafted and unique and decorated both inside and out.  The children seemed very pleased with what they had made and some crackers were taken from the workshop very carefully wrapped up - we suspected they were going to be special Christmas presents.

Wrapping up the story to hide it in the cracker

This workshop certainly got us in the Christmas mood - we hope you all had a happy Christmas!

Story Houses

If you've already been to our exhibition then you'll know about The Story Cabinet - our collaborative piece made predominantly from cardboard and based around fairy tales. Likewise this workshop was inspired by fairy tales and makes use of lots of cardboard!

A house is a great place to stage a story: many fairy tales feature a house in the woods. The house could be friendly, a place of safety, mysterious, dangerous or magical. It might be different on the inside - not what it seems from the outside. Houses are also the place where our real life stories take place and children play with miniature versions - dolls houses and wendy houses.

A snowy house with smoke coming out of the chimney and a bit of magic sparkle on the roof

The children didn't need much encouragement to stage their own stories. Using pens, papers, fabrics, glue and their imaginations they set to work.

The concentration was evident as they got involved in the details of their individual creations. Their grown-ups joined in and offered assistance - at times seeming that they wanted to make their own house too! But the children had very definite ideas about what should be included and what should not. This child (above and below) spent ages on the details getting it just right

A very detailed house with individual bricks drawn and decorated with coloured fabrics

This child (below) focussed on who lived in the house. A funny story emerged around a penguin in the shower, a frog eating flies and a female super hero!

Inside the house live the penguin and the frog...

...and the super hero (girl)

And then the outside was collaged and drawn to make a flower garden.

A sleeping bird peeps out of the door - making it four occupants of this house

The inside is hidden (but you can peep through the window) and the roof is put on. 

There was lovely relaxed atmosphere as everyone got into their creative zone. We all worked right up to the end of the session - there's never enough time when your ideas start flowing!

Then, just before we said goodbye, we lit the houses up with candles (battery operated!) and turned the lights off

The house looked magical when they were all lit up

The next workshop "Toy Stories"at the museum will be at 10.30 on Saturday 28th January - we hope you can come! 

This is a creative workshop for children aged 7+ based on making story books inspired by characters in the toy collection and throughout the museum. It  will be facilitated by Fabula members Juliette Rajak and Louise Dennis. Further details from:

http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/hove/whats-on/#!toy-stories 

Admission
You can buy tickets by telephoning the Events Booking line on 03000 290902 (Mon-Fri) or in person at any of our venues. You can also email visitor.services@brighton-hove.gov.uk if you have any queries. A £1.50 booking fee may apply to some events. Tickets cannot be reserved without payment.

£5 per child, members £4 per child, advance booking advisable. 7 years and over. 

Just bring your imagination!

Spooky Tales in The Museum!

You might expect to hear a story being told during our current exhibition Many Ways to Tell A Story at Hove Museum and sure enough...

Before Christmas families came to hear a ghost story read by writer and storyteller Charles Rudkin. He sat on an original Victorian chair placed next to the beautiful fireplace. Wearing a splendid red hat and a black velvet coat he fittingly looked every bit like a character from a Dickens novel.  

The stage was set and the audience were not disappointed as he read one of his stories from a collection entitled 'Hauntings in the Museum'. All three stories are inspired by the Hove Museum's collection and its past and each one is illustrated by Fabula artist, Dagmara Rudkin.  

Hauntings in the Museum by Charles Rudkin, illustrations by Dagmara Rudkin

Charles has an excellent voice for storytelling and really commands the attention of his listeners. He told them a story inspired by the Wizards Attic - about the evil Master Gorger who kidnapped souls of children. As the story unfolded - laughter, gasps and tears of fear came from the audience. Thankfully the Wizard came to the rescue in the end and everybody went home happily!

A double page spread from The Fiend in the Attic

There are two other stories that Charles did not read this time - one is inspired by a famous Amber Cup that can be seen upstairs in the Museum and the other takes inspiration from the history of the family who originally owned the building. 

A double page spread from The Major

Charles and Dagmara are called Scribekin when they work together as artist and writer. This is the second of their fantastic collaborations the first being the animated retelling of 'Henny Penny' illustrated by Dagmara Rudkin and written and narrated by Charles. We are reliably informed that there are more to come  - watch this space!

It is still possible to purchase the zine 'Hauntings in The Museum' from the museum shop. The illustrations above are just a small taster of Dagmara Rudkin's work and to see more come to Hove Museum & Art Gallery where she is currently exhibiting with Fabula Collective until 9th May.  Here you will be able to see her book and the hand-made puppets from the making of her animation - a retelling of the story of Henny Penny. This film is also being screened upstairs at Hove Museum throughout the exhibition.

Into The Woods...It's Time For A Story...

The forest - a place for transformation. What lies in the shadows?

Wild woods and lands are the threshold places where stories can come alive. Are the trees friendly and will they protect us? What happens if we stray from the path? And when we are in the woods what creatures will know we are there? Whose eyes are looking, watching, (waiting), peering though the woody darkness? 

The big bad wolf in a land that never was in a time that could never be

Beautiful objects and images made using a natural colour palette are put together in our collaborative piece - The Story Cabinet. Here, old and new stories will join and overlap providing a feast for the eyes in three wooden cabinets.  An alternative term for 'fairy tale' is 'wonder tale' from the German Wundermärchen and these cabinets are just bursting with 'small wonders' to bring you the magic of far away realms full of mystery, morals and magical characters.

Let us take you back to a time when humans and animals could talk to each other. Come, peep through a window - a portal to another place - and Join with the story. Those who live there can't see that a giant lurks nearby....

A great while ago, when the world was full of wonders....

Art Nouveau window frames a story

...there was a little window at the back of a house from which a splendid garden could be seen. Full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs, it was however, surrounded by a high wall. No one dared to go into it because it belonged to a wicked enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded throughout the land. 

The couple there had no children and were very poor. All they had was a cow. One day he gave her a bunch of keys that would open any door except one door she must not go in and the key to that door was magical. At last he dropped off to sleep. When he woke up, the room looked so changed. The sun was shining into part of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. 

Who lives here? - a place of safety or imprisonment?

The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. A white bird always came to her there and every time the bird threw down to her whatever she had wished for. In the morning she was asked how she had slept. "Oh, very badly!" she said. "I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!" 

The wicked thought grows all the time like a poisonous plant and slowly kills the good thoughts. A wicked feeling was growing in the stepmother's heart, and she determined to send the children to the witch. She threw one of the shirts over each of them and when the shirts touched their bodies they were transformed into swans, and they flew away over the woods.

Time -  past, present and future.

The next morning she went out and gathered asters and began to sew. She could not speak with anyone and she was warned that she had to return before midnight when the spells would be broken. 

And the pea? The pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it. 


There, that is a true story.

(But only one of many that could be told).





The Story Cabinet will be exhibited at Hove Museum from December 3rd until April 2017 as part of Fabula Collectives forthcoming exhibition "Many Ways to Tell A Story". 

Come and visit and see if you can find the pea in the museum!

The Story Cabinet Develops...

More about The Story Cabinet - our on-going collaborative piece based around fairy tales and myths...

Entering the Fairy Tale Forest

The art work from all nine artists involved will be combined in and around wooden boxes to make a rich visual display. 

An Old Wooden Drawer 

You may be able to imagine how these details might play a part in a fairy tale.

Whose Garden is This?

The project is still evolving and we are still meeting up to make work together using lots of natural materials.

Back into the Forest Using Mixed Media and Light

Textures

Several Fabula artists have joined together to work on this project. We work in many different disciplines and this creates a wide variety of potential ways to tell stories and collaborate with each other. Each of us responds to the project in a different way. 

Fairy Tale Trees - One Way to Make Them

Playing with Scale to Make These Trees.

There are details that we're deliberately leaving out here - so there will be some surprises. This piece will appeal to children and adults and will have some interactive elements. We hope you will come and see it at Hove Museum from 3rd December.

Fabula artists involved in the Story Cabinet are Richard Clarke, Lou Wishart, Penelope Chong, Louise Dennis, Katherine Perret, Juliette Rajak, Dagmara Rudkin, Mags Swift and Ruby Hermon.   Further information about our work can be found on the Fabula website.

Our story making collaboration - The Story Cabinet - shh!

Right, here is a little visual taster to get you in the mood.

It's very much work in progress and so it's hard to say exactly what the finished piece will be. In a way, we don't want to spoil the surprise: however, we're going to tell you a little bit about it now and more to come later.

What it will have are some well-known stories woven into the finished piece and it's very likely that you will see some influences from Hove Museum's collection.

One certainty is our intended audience  - we are making it to appeal to families.  Another is that the combination of us all working together will result in something that wouldn't be possible for any of us on our own. This work may end up described in many ways once it is finished. We're thinking it will be exciting, beautiful, mysterious, educational, interesting and fun - but we are biased and we couldn't possibly specify how and why just yet!

We'd love to tell you more but you'll just have to wait for further posts!

You can see for yourself how our work is developing on selected Mondays until December because The Royal Pavilion & Museums have agreed to have us as artists in residence at Hove Museum. The next one will be in August - and i'll post the date in advance here.