The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts announces Stoke-on-Trent Museums Service as winner of storytelling competition

Posted 11th February 2008 12:34 pm | Permalink

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

MUSICQUEST COMES TO A CLOSE IN A SERIES OF FINALE CONCERTS

Posted 4th February 2008 18:28 pm | Permalink

The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts finely-tuned project, MusicQuest, wholly funded by Classic FM Music Makers, comes to a close with finale concerts across the UK.  

Thousands of children across the UK have experienced the power of live orchestral music due to MusicQuest, a project brought to life by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts (formerly Arts & Kids) and wholly funded by Classic FM Music Makers, which culminated in a series of celebratory finale workshops and concerts.  

Working with Yamaha Music UK, Classic FM, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Naxos, MusicQuest is a three-year project that seeks to introduce a new generation to the power of live classical music. Between 23rd January and 1st February members of the Philharmonia Orchestra met and performed in front of 5,000 pupils at five venues across the UK; The Orchard Theatre in Dartford, Warwick Arts Centre, Blackpool Ice Arena, Venue Cymru North Wales and Perth Concert Hall.  

Children involved met musicians from the Philharmonia Orchestra in a ‘hands on’ workshop before the concert, which gave each pupil the chance to try an instrument and learn different percussion rhythms with a professional musician – who they later saw performing on stage.

The finale concerts marked the end of the five month project which began in October 2007. MusicQuest has enabled 5000 children, aged between 7-11 years old, who have had limited access to performances, instruments and music lessons, to gain greater experience and understanding of classical and orchestral music.  

 MusicQuest aims to dispel the myth that classical music is elitist and does little to engage young people, and promote it as exciting and accessible to children of all ages and backgrounds.  The project encourages children to listen and play classical music for pleasure and endorse the value of classical music in the day to day practise of teachers.