Storytelling at Museums,Arts and Historic Sites Panel Discussion
Stories arise from place and culture comes from country. That is why we have museums: to be the keeping places of the stories that communities want told, all signified by objects - but objects don’t tell stories. They don’t have mouths.
We often say that there are three elements to storytelling: storyteller, audience, and story – but there is a fourth, the place in which we tell, the reason we are telling. Heritage sites go far beyond museums – galleries, sculpture parks, museums, historic houses, streets, gardens, parks, beaches and bush (or forest, or pampas!) – each of them a nest where particular stories are born.
In this panel discussion we will be looking at all these elements and sites, but most importantly at the possible connections – of story to object, of performers to space, of time present to time past, from what was created to what we need to hold on to. But if culture is related to place, what happens to storytelling when that space is virtual? When we change the mode, or the media, or the setting, what can we create that is authentic to storyteller, audience, and story?
Panel Members: Jo Henwood (Australia), Swee Yean Wong (Singapore), Annabelle Castano (Argentina), Anna Salaman (United Kingdom)