The Museum of… The Story Museum - Museums Association

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The Museum of… The Story Museum

Mariana Cerqueira enters the magical world of children's storytelling at this museum in Oxford
Mariana Cerqueira
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What

The Story Museum in Oxford is all about the power of storytelling. It started in 2003 as an educational charity doing outreach work in schools but has evolved into a physical museum.

“We believe that stories are important for everybody but particularly important to help young people reach their full potential,” says Sophie Hiscock, the museum’s fundraising and communications manager.

Opened

2014. The museum started holding pop-up events in 2010, but only opened full-time last year.

Exhibitions

The Story Museum explores the power of children’s literature as a tool for learning and entertaining. The 26 Characters exhibition invites visitors to walk through interactive story sceneries that have been brought to life by designers such as Alix Harwood, who designed sets for the Harry Potter movies and Thor.

The exhibition finishes on 22 February and a new project is being planned. “I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s going to be very exciting,” Hiscock says. Until the opening of its next exhibition in the summer, the museum will host pop-up events with storytellers and possibly have a touring exhibition during Easter.

Highlight

“Giving people the opportunity to step into Narnia,” Hiscock says. “We have a wardrobe that takes you through to Narnia; it’s full of snow, trees and sparkle. Because the exhibition is in our unrefurbished building, which doesn’t have heating, Narnia is authentically chilly at the moment. People have to look around in their coats but they’re loving it.”

Help at hand

The museum relies on volunteers who support a small staff team, but visitors are encouraged to explore the stories by themselves. “We encourage people to step into story worlds so our volunteers are very good at helping people feel confident to do that and letting them go and explore at their own speed,” Hiscock says. The museum also runs “relaxed visits” once a month for people with learning disabilities or autism, with no noise or light effects.

Budget

Donations from trusts, foundations and individual donors are its main source of income but it also raises money through ticket sales and from the shop and cafe.

Visitors

12,000 visitors in its first eight months. The museum has also welcomed more than 6,000 schoolchildren.

Sticky moment

“Explaining to people that they’re coming to a museum that isn’t finished,” Hiscock says. “Some people love the fact that our building has holes in the walls and is a bit ramshackle, and other people are a bit bemused by it. So we have to explain to our visitors that while we have one refurbished building, we still have two very large areas that we need to refurbish.”

Survival tip

“Cake,” Hiscock says. “We survive on a lot of cake to boost the morale of our small staff team and our volunteers.”

Future plans

The Story Museum wants its building completely refurbished in four years’ time, while trying to keep the “sense of atmosphere and quirkiness” that its unfinished space offers to visitors. In the meantime it will continue to develop temporary exhibitions and gain an understanding of what visitors would like to see in its permanent collection.

Mariana Cerqueira is a freelance journalist


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