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Seven Stories

There has been a lot of talk about literacy initiatives in schools but still children’s books get little attention from adults. They are rarely reviewed in mainstream press, and bookshops tend to have only a small selection of the many available titles. But this should change if Seven Stories: the Centre for Children’s Books has its way. Based around a unique collection of literature and illustration for children the centre wants to engage visitors in conversation about storytelling and bookmaking. Judging by the current displays it should provide young readers and budding authors and illustrators with a wealth of inspiration.

Seven Stories’ founding directors, Elizabeth Hammill and Mary Briggs, started collecting the archive 1996. They aimed to collect not only the finished article but also works that show the process of writing and illustrating, including manuscripts, sketches and research materials. Seven Stories provides a series of spaces in which the people who read the books can explore not only the stories, but also those process of creating them. It includes exhibition spaces, workshop and drama spaces as well as a café and dedicated children’s bookshop. 

The current exhibition is a great example of how the collection can be used to engage children with books and storytelling. Incredible Journeys explores four themes based around key elements of storytelling: place, words, time and character. Each section contains sketches, manuscripts and finished works, and although there are a selection of hands-on activities the literature and illustrations are the stars of the show.

There is something here for people of all ages. Each room has a graphic backdrop designed by a different children’s illustrator. Artworks from the archive are hung at child-friendly height, though not so low that adults have to stoop. It is a visual feast for young eyes that want to enjoy seeing characters from books they know. For those experimenting with language World of Words features witty poems that explore word play against a backdrop illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura. 

For anyone who enjoys storytelling or perhaps wants to be a writer or illustrator the exhibition provides a wealth of inspiration that clearly expresses the raison d’etre of the archive. This comes not just from the variety of ideas on display, but because the exhibition shows how the work is produced. 

Perhaps one of the clearest examples of this is found in World of Characters. It is a case containing J K Rowling’s draft for chapter six of the first Harry Potter book alongside a plan for chapter seven and a sketch to help her visualise her characters. There is not a page of the draft chapter that isn’t covered in crossing out and revisions. The chapter plan shows Rowling ordering her thoughts and working out a plan of action for the story. Here is one part of the writing process, more eloquently explained than in any ‘how to’ manual.

The Time Room shows another part. Pinned on the wall are photos of the garden at King’s Mill House which was the inspiration for Phillipa Pearce’s story Tom’s Midnight Garden. The adjacent case shows that inspiration is just the start. Pearce was meticulous in her research and the case contains books, diaries, records of conversations and letters she wrote to check facts. For any budding author here are some valuable tips. For those who are just keen readers, perhaps there will be a deeper understanding of how stories are created.

There is encouragement for young illustrators too. The artworks in the exhibition cover all stages of the design process, from Angela Barrett’s sketch book to Peter Boston’s illustrations that are marked up with directions for the printer. Many of the drawings are one offs, though; perhaps future exhibitions will show illustrations at all stages of development, from sketches to the finished article.

As with many museums, Seven Stories can only show a selection of its collection at any one time. The archive is in fact housed at Newcastle University as there are no onsite storage facilities at the centre. However, some of the collection has been digitised and this can be accessed from Seven Stories in Story Lab, a dedicated space where students and researchers will be able to have computer access to the digitised collection.

The other spaces in Seven Stories continue to explore the process of writing and drawing through workshops, talks and drama. The flexibility of the spaces allows for a wide range of activities suitable for all age groups and interests, and there is an interesting programme of forthcoming events. At the top of the building Artists’ Attic is set in the rafters, and the exposed beams combine with drapes to give a theatrical feel to the space. It is an area for storytelling, drama and talks. Engine Room is an education and workshop space set in a bright, naturally lit room at the bottom of the building, overlooking the river. There is plenty of room for a group to sit and listen to a story; alternatively there are lots of props to aid in story telling or to use as inspiration for drawings. Events include workshops by illustrators and ‘walk in‘ activities which link to ideas in the exhibitions. Current activities include Word Factory where visitors can make their favourite words out of brightly coloured pipe cleaners and stick them on a wall for all to see. It’s fun to do, and interesting to read everyone else’s words.

There is a real buzz at Seven Stories. The enthusiasm for books and illustration at is hard to miss, and it is great to find somewhere that manages to convey that enthusiasm so effortlessly to a wide range of age groups. It is equally hard to see how it can fail to engage new generations of readers, authors and illustrators.

Seven Stories, 30 Lime St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2PQ

This article first appeared in Museums Journal in 2005

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Creating Connections

It’s a longstanding question: how do you make science more accessible? Many initiatives have attempted this, and museums have often played a key role. The most recent attempt was the public understanding of science movement (PUS), which began in response to a perceived loss of confidence in science. Now widely discredited in its approach, PUS has become shorthand for an authoritarian, ‘cognitive-deficit’ stance that tried to make ‘the public’ more appreciative of science. But controversial issues involving science keep hitting the headlines, and the distance between the scientific and non-scientific communities remains. So how should museums present science and allow visitors to engage in a dialogue?

Creating Connections contains the selected papers from a conference that discussed just that. Enabling full public engagement and dialogue about science is a new task for museums, and Creating Connections should perhaps be viewed as a discussion document. It argues for ‘public understanding of research’ (PUR) and sets out history, rationale, strategies and examples and advice from other media. However, rather than leading the way in a key debate this book is a missed opportunity.

At the core of the book is a distinction between the public understanding of research, and the public understanding of science. Unfortunately none of the contributors seem too sure of what PUR is, although two main definitions filter through. The primary definition is also a rationale. PUR is about engagement with issues: where PUS imposed, PUR will debate. This is to be greatly welcomed, but sadly the strategies and case studies set out in the book imply that the reality will be somewhat different. The key problem seems to be in considering the audience. Engagement requires listening, not assuming authority, not considering ‘the public’ as a homogeneous mass and considering all views as valid. Yet here authors talk about what ‘the public’ need to know, or to learn, in order to understand ‘the scientific process’. This doesn’t sound like engagement; the tone is the same old cognitive deficit approach to a better public appreciation of science. 

Suggestions for methods of engagement don’t fare much better. Albert and Edna Einseidel give a succinct account of a continuum of engagement, but other contributors pay only lip service to the most interactive forms such as consensus conferences. Events at which scientists meet ‘the public’ take precedence. It is easy to see the advantages of this to the scientists, but what will visitors gain? No one seems to have asked. There doesn’t seem to be any acknowledgement of the fact that most scientific issues have a political and/or ethical nature. It’s no good talking to scientists if politicians make the decisions. The Einseidels suggest that avoidance of politics will be foremost in many museums’ minds and the book seems to bear out their hunch.

The second definition of PUR is given by the dubious distinction between ‘finished’ and ‘unfinished’ science (when does science become ‘finished’, and who says so?). It turns out that ‘unfinished’ refers to new science that hits the headlines. Many of the strategies and examples of PUR in museums are about exhibits on these stories, and are more concerned with revealing scientific process than with engagement. Five chapters are given to print and broadcast professionals to tell us how they choose and develop science features. It turns out that this is quite straightforward: it’s the story, stupid. But what comes through in these chapters is how difficult it can be to turn a story around quickly, despite the amazing amounts of resources news organisations have. Other contributors acknowledge this and suggest forming networks so that museums can share resources and workload. But no-one asks why museums should try to compete with better resourced, well-established daily news media. Nor do they ask why ‘unfinished’ science should be any better than ‘finished’ science at illustrating the complexities of a subject inextricably linked to other practices and values.

There is one author who does raise concerns about the limited vision of PUR presented in Creating Connections. Don Pohlman’s two chapters, especially the afterword, elegantly articulate his concerns about this nascent field. They are one of the few points in the book where the subject is given careful thought and reflection. It is interesting, and disappointing, that the other noteworthy chapters are written by non-museum professionals. As well as the Einseidels’s contribution, Bruce Lewenstein and Rick Bonney neatly outline some of the complexities surrounding science and the public. Tim Radford’s article is a sparking showcase of faced-paced journalistic style, and Christine Cansfield-Smith’s account of the Discovery building at CSIRO in Canberra is extremely interesting and insightful. But it is Pohlman who stands out as the person who makes a considered overview of the subject.

Also of interest is the slightly puzzling choice of papers making up Creating Connections. A list of delegates in the appendix shows that the conference was international, and yet of the 32 contributors to the book, 24 are from the US, six from the UK (three of whom are from the Science Museum) and one each from Australia and Canada. There are no papers from the rest of Europe, in spite of the fact that the most cited talks were by François Vescia of La Cité des Sciences and delegates from the Hygiene Museum, Dresden. I would really liked to have read their contributions, not least because the Hygiene Museum has organised consensus conferences.

There is no doubt that there is a need to show and explore how closely science is intertwined with society. And there is no doubt that for many issues involving science, engagement by all interested parties on equal terms is desirable. Museums can play a role in this. The distinction between public understanding of research and public understanding of science is pretty shaky, but it is inevitable that any new field will raise more questions than it answers. What is noticeable in Creating Connections is how many questions are not asked. The debate needs to be much more sophisticated than that presented here.

“Creating Connections: : museums and the public understanding of current research” Eds: D Chittenden, G Carmelo, B V Lewenstein. AltaMira Press ISBN 075910476X

This article was first published in Museums Journal, November 2004

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