Staffordshire County Museum
Brief to prepare and deliver storytelling sessions for people living with dementia and children under five.
Requirement
To prepare and deliver participatory and interactive storytelling sessions inspired by the theme of childhood and Staffordshire County Museum collections, which successfully engage with both people living with dementia and children under five.
This would involve delivering two sessions for people living with dementia and two sessions for young children and, if possible one final session bringing together the two different age groups. This would be the equivalent of three full days, incorporating half a day preparation time with museum staff and the museum collections.
Background
These sessions are one element within the Arts Council England funded, ‘Moving On’, project aimed at maintaining the museum service and profile during a period of transition, when permanent displays are no longer accessible. The project aims to trial new and creative ways of engaging diverse audiences with the museum collections which will feed into future work in a sustainable way.
As part of this, the museum has created two exhibitions which will tour around Staffordshire. The first exhibition; Puppets on Parade has already visited several museums and spaces in the county and the next exhibition; Childhood is the focus of the museum’s work with a storyteller.
We would like to use the exhibition theme of childhood and related museum collections as inspiration for an interactive and participatory storytelling session. As well as the inspiration for the sessions, objects from the museum’s handling collection can be used in the sessions as the focus for feedback and interaction.
Storytelling has been identified as an engaging and positive experience for older people, including those who have dementia. This can create a more immersive interactive experience which can engage people with a wide variety of needs. The storytelling sessions will feed into the development of the core museum offer for older people in care using the museum handling collection and incorporating elements of the storytelling experience. The sessions will therefore be closely observed and evaluated and we aim to work with a filmmaker to record the project. This would result in content from the sessions for the childhood exhibition but also be used in the evaluation and dissemination of the project.
Key requirements:-
· To develop an interactive and participatory story telling session inspired by the theme of childhood and using Staffordshire County Museum collections.
· To deliver sessions for people living with dementia and young children in a range of possible settings including care homes, dementia cafés and nurseries.
· To be available for feedback to aid in the development of future work.
Fee
It is anticipated the entire project would constitute three days work at a rate of £300 per day.
Proposed Timetable
All sessions to take place before the end of March 2018.
Specification
A successful response to this brief should demonstrate or provide the following:
· Experience of improvised storytelling, using a group’s thoughts, questions and objects to create an interactive performance that will engage the participants.
· An extensive experience of working with older people, those living with dementia and early year’s age groups.
· A breakdown of fees and all additional costs relating to the project.
· A CV with examples of previous and current work on similar projects.
· Some experience of working with museum collections.
· A list of references.
They will also be evaluated on value for money; deliverables; sustainability and the track record of those involved.
Expressions of interest should reach us no later than
5pm on Monday 29th January 2018 together with your reply to the brief, and a quotation for the work. They should be returned to Natalie Heidaripour, see below for contact details.
Project Management and Monitoring
Client: Staffordshire County Museum
Client Liaison Contacts: The main client contact for liaison, development and all information relating to the project is to be Natalie Heidaripour (01889 869139, ), Museum Resilience Project Officer.
Appointment of Contractors
Selection and appointment of contractors is to be carried out in strict accordance and compliance with the Staffordshire County Council Contract Rules and financial regulations.
Further Information
Please contact:
Natalie Heidaripour
Museum Resilience Project Officer
Staffordshire Museum Service
01889 869139
Brief for Storyteller
January 2018