The Story Museum facts for kids
The Story Museum is a museum in Oxford, England. It aims to encourage education and support community engagement by exploring all forms of stories. It is a registered charity under English law. As of 7 July 2018 the exhibitions of the museum were closed for renovation, although the cafe remained open. The museum was slated to reopen to the public on Saturday 4 April 2020, but the opening was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It partially reopened on 6th August, with visitors able to visit the cafe, shop and two of the new galleries. The full reopening was scheduled for 24 October 2020.
Exhibitions
In 2012 The Museum worked with then-artist-in-residence Ted Dewan to build a "Storyloom", a large scale piece of kinetic art with an in-depth fictional history. The Storyloom went on to be featured in the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
From 2016 until 2017, the Story Museum ran the exhibition 26 Characters featuring photography by Cambridge Jones, which was developed with the involvement of children's authors and illustrators, all of whom were asked to choose and then dress as their favourite childhood characters. The participants included:
- Terry Jones as Rupert the Bear
- Michael Morpurgo as Abel Magwitch
- Philip Pullman as Long John Silver
- Ted and Pandora Dewan as Pod and Arriety
- Benjamin Zephaniah as Anansi
- Katherine Rundell as A Wild Thing
- Charlie Higson as Boromir
- Terry Pratchett as William Brown
- Malorie Blackman as the Wicked Witch of the West
- Steven Butler and Francesca Simon as The Mad Hatter and The Queen of Hearts
- Shirley Hughes and Clare Vulliamy as Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell
- Geraldine McCaughrean as Bellerophon
- Holly Smale as the White Witch
- Michael Rosen as Till Eulenspiegel
- Neil Gaiman as Badger
- Julia and Malcolm Donaldson as The Owl and the Pussycat
- Katrice Horsley as Mary Poppins
- Anthony Horowitz as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
- Frances Hardinge as The Scarlet Pimpernel
- Jamila Gavin as Hanuman
- Kevin Crossley-Holland as Merlin
- Cressida Cowell as Peter Pan
From 2016 The Story Museum ran an exhibition called Animal, focusing on the role of animals as characters in texts including Watership down, Fantastic Mr Fox, Wallace and Gromit, Maus and the works of Aesop.
In 2017 The Story Museum ran an exhibition called Wild About Colour featuring a number of pieces by Brian Wildsmith alongside works by contemporary illustrators who had been influenced by his use of colour. The exhibition was curated by Helen Cooper and displayed the work of Shaun Tan and Korky Paul amongst others.
Renovation
The museum closed for renovation on 7 July 2018. The renovation is anticipated to cost £6 million. They received a £1 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2015, and a £2 million grant from Arts Council England. The renovation was completed in 2020.
