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P.ublished 14th February 2022
arts
A New Chapter – Settle Stories Launches Storyversity
Sita Brand and Charles Tyrer
This radical new strand to the charity’s creative offer will enable people from all backgrounds and professions to learn the art of storytelling, so they can craft a novel, improve their boardroom skills or learn to perform in front of an audience.
Since the pandemic the charity has taken its flagship festival Yorkshire Festival of Story online, trebling audiences. Its schools programme which typically reached 6,000 children a year reached over 85,000 in 2021.
Charles Tyrer, Executive Director of Settle Stories said:
“Going digital has enabled us to maintain a relationship with our local audiences whilst extending our impact nationally, making our work free for all at a challenging time.”
“Going digital has enabled us to maintain a relationship with our local audiences whilst extending our impact nationally, making our work free for all at a challenging time.”
Storyversity is a bespoke online subscription service, already featuring nine master classes from a wide range of storytellers from across the globe. Learners receive 12-20 hours of individually paced learning for each course and subjects range from ‘How to use Gesture Creatively’ to ‘Vocal Training’ to ‘Storytelling for Radical Citizenship’, with further courses being added regularly.
Sita Brand the CEO and Artistic Director of Settle Stories explained:
“The Financial Times reported last week that storytelling teaches you to craft a conversation in your favour – whether that’s to negotiate a pay rise, entertain your families or to make a wedding speech. I believe everyone can learn to master the art of storytelling which is why we created Storyversity, to support teachers, artists and business people to master the art of storytelling to make a difference.”
“The Financial Times reported last week that storytelling teaches you to craft a conversation in your favour – whether that’s to negotiate a pay rise, entertain your families or to make a wedding speech. I believe everyone can learn to master the art of storytelling which is why we created Storyversity, to support teachers, artists and business people to master the art of storytelling to make a difference.”
Building on Settle Stories digital success and growing international audience, the platform will be available to learners internationally and offered for a low monthly cost. Long term, the income from Storyversity will help to subsidise Settle Stories free programme of both live and digital events.
In uncertain times for the cultural sector, investing in Storyversity has been a bold move for the small charity. Settle Stories has received investment from the Key Fund to build the site and more recently received £20,000 from Garfield Weston for core costs. This will enable Settle Stories to maintain its digital programme and begin running in person events for the community whilst launching Storyversity.
Charles Tyrer commented:
“It’s been a very difficult time altering our business model from face to face storytelling to online, but we succeeded and this has enabled us to reimagine the direction of Settle Stories. The grant from Garfield Weston has been vital to providing some certainty at a very challenging time. We invite everyone to master the art of storytelling with Storyversity, you can find out more at www.storyversity.org. ”
“It’s been a very difficult time altering our business model from face to face storytelling to online, but we succeeded and this has enabled us to reimagine the direction of Settle Stories. The grant from Garfield Weston has been vital to providing some certainty at a very challenging time. We invite everyone to master the art of storytelling with Storyversity, you can find out more at www.storyversity.org. ”