Inspiring Crankies

Fabulous day today (26 September) with storyteller/author and illustrator Peter Stevenson. Peter told stories from the Mabinogion using a Crankie. The children from Narberth CP School had the chance to create their own Crankie out of matchboxes and tell their own story, based around transformation. It was wonderful to see so much imagination and creativity inspired by stories. And Crankies are just glorious!

The afternoon session saw Peter telling stories to adults and this gave a fascinating insight into the storytelling world. The story of Henry Box Brown told through a Crankie was totally inspiring.

We would love to get Peter back for another session in the not too distant future. This event was funded by Welsh Government through the Welsh Museums Federation.

So You’d Like To Write A Book?

It’s Independent Bookshop Day on October 12th, and we’re celebrating all day at Chapter One.

In the morning, we’ve got our regular Paperback Breakfast, a popular event where paperbacks get exchanged and coffee and croissants enjoyed.

In the afternoon, we’ve got a gaggle of local authors with heaps of experience and over 20 titles published, to chat informally about story shaping, traditional v self publishing and – that bete noire of many writers – marketing.

You’re most welcome to come along with any sort of queries and interests. Our authors have written in many different forms, from technical publishing, to writing for radio and tv, to play writing, novels, poetry and short stories.

So whether you’re a complete newbie to writing or have an idea you’ve been incubating for decades, we should be able to help and inspire you.

Saturday, October 12th, Narberth Museum, 2 – 4pm.

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Tales from the Mabinogion

Renowned author, illustrator and storyteller Peter Stevenson will be holding two storytelling sessions at Narberth Museum on Thursday 26th September.  The stories will be based around the Mabinogion (Y Mabinogi) and to bring these to life Peter will be using Crankies.  A Crankie is a long, illustrated scroll (also called a “moving panorama” or a “moving backdrop”) that is wound onto two spools, and loaded into a box which has a viewing screen. The scroll is then hand-cranked while the story depicted upon it is presented.

Peter’s will be holding two sessions for invited school groups.  .  The project has been funded by money from the Welsh Government through the Federation of Museums and Art Galleries of Wales.

Peter Stevenson is a storyteller, children’s writer, book illustrator, folklorist, film maker, crankie maker, artist, book maker, organiser of the annual 3-day Aberystwyth Storytelling Festival and Y Mabinogi Project in collaboration with Aberystwyth Arts Centre, and the Wales Appalachia Project, along with Stories@Medina, a storytelling club that encourages collaborations with visual artists, musicians, and puppeteers. He has illustrated, compiled and written many children’s books, travelled the country with storytelling shows for adults that use hundreds of illustrations, crankies, and live music and has written four books of Welsh folk tales for the History Press.

Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan Event

Narberth Museum volunteers recently attended a workshop with Dr Marian Gwyn and Beloved Adonai entitled Museums, Cynefin and Communities: Building A Lasting Legacy. The event explored how museums can contribute to the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan and how, through open dialogue, building up community connections and exploring the ways that the collection can tell more than one story to increase diversity and interaction. It was a fascinating and eye-opening event, real food for thought about the importance of museums and their collections to change-making. There were lots of very interesting discussions and really made the museum look at the way that it engages and uses its collections. Planning ahead now!