New Story Researcher joins the team at Keswick Museum

Hannah Fox has joined the team at Keswick Museum as Story Researcher for its new Storytellers project.

In this new role, she will be undertaking research for the 18 month project on a two day a week basis to seek out and record the cultural heritage of storytelling local to Cumbria - both the stories and those who have told them. The gathered tales will be celebrated in an exhibition at the museum in 2025.

Hannah commented on the role:

“I’m delighted to be joining the team in this important new project which will extend the museum’s work right across Cumbria - I see this role as part Anthropologist Detective and part Magpie!”

Hannah trained in Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art and has worked for the last 30 years in a wide range of creative settings including theatre, design, festivals and events. She lives in Cumbria, and also works across the north on a freelance basis to research and facilitate creative community projects.

For further information, please contact:

Jane Affleck, Keswick Museum Manager

[email protected] 017687 73263

The Storytellers Project

Cumbria’s famous authors and poets are renowned the world over, and yet these figures are only a small part of the picture. Everyday storytellers have been part of the Lakes’ communities and culture for generations, but we have become aware that their contributions are often unrecorded, risking loss of traditional narrative and limiting the rich variety of perspectives and versions of stories told.

This is a new project with the aim of exploring, recording and celebrating the cultural heritage of storytelling local to Cumbria – both the stories and those who have told them. Through a series of consultation events in Year One with groups and local communities, we will identify and record local storytellers and their tales – narratives which may have been shared through families and communities through generations.

We will explore their origins, how they have developed and what forms they now take. This project is not about recording social histories.

Year One will coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of local author and poet Robert Southey. As well as celebratory events including a new museum exhibition, study days, talks and tours, we will use the anniversary and his well-known Three Bears narrative as an opportunity to explore how the act of storytelling evolves – how folklore and myth is interpreted and retold in new forms for new audiences.

Activities in Year One will build upon our current successful programme of school visits to the museum, a combined schools event, and a variety of events for children, families and adults.

A larger Storytellers exhibition at the museum in Year Two will be based upon the research compiled during the first year, but will also explore how the process of telling stories has changed through time – from fireside and oral storytelling to writing, performance, imagery and song.

The first year’s consultation work will also culminate in ‘The Story Hub’ – a permanent record of narrative material conserved by the museum, available for all to access in digital form.