Click on the links below to contact other organisations connected with storytelling
http://www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.ukScottish Storytelling Centre
GAS is affiliated to the Scottish Storytelling Forum, which is run by the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. The Centre runs a wide variety of workshops and courses and hosts a range of events throughout the year.
A special annual focus is the Scottish International Storytelling Festival at the end of October for around two weeks.
Storytellers from around the UK and many other countries have featured in recent years and the festival is an excellent opportunity to network with folk who are involved in the storytelling world as tellers and listeners. Scottish Storytelling Centre
http://aberdeenstorytelling.googlepages.com/
The Aberdeen University Storytelling Societybegan in 2007 and meet every wednesday during term time. Members of AUSS were guest storytellers at our March 2009 First Friday Fling and we look forward to this becoming a regular thing!
http://www.dundee-storytelling.org.uk/default.php
Blether-Tay-Gither are the Dundee Storytelling Group. GAS and Blether-Tay-Gither had their first joint workshop in March 2009 and it was a great success!
http://www.glasgowstorytellers.org.uk/
The Glasgow Storytellers are (not surprisingly) based in the Glasgow area and run the Better Crack Club (for adults) and the Even Better Crack Club for children and young people.
http://www.sfs.org.uk
The Society for Storytelling is particularly geared for storytellers living and working in England and Wales but has no restriction on membership. Its website is definitely worth a look - there are several links to festivals and events - and membership of the organisation includes a regular magazine called StoryLines, which is worth reading to keep abreast of the national and international storytelling scene.
http://www.aberdeenshirearts.org.uk/
Aberdeenshire Arts This site is your gateway to information about the arts in Aberdeenshire. It is maintained by Aberdeenshire Council's Arts Development Team and provides news, events, information about funding and contacts for the local arts. GAS events are often publicised here, and if you have an arts group, it's easy to upload your event there too!
http://www.en.sgeulachdan.com/
Proiseact Sgeulachdan - the Gaelic Storytelling Project. With the help of the local community, members of the Gaelic Arts Agency Proiseact nan Ealan, aim to capture and regenerate the ancient Celtic bardic and storytelling tradition.
http://www.storycenter.org
Centre for Digital Storytelling - California USA. A non-profit making arts organisation rooted in the art of personal storytelling. The CDS assist people of all ages in using the tools of digital media to craft, record, share, and value the stories of individuals and communities, in ways that improve all our lives. What best describes their approach is its emphasis on personal voice and facilitative teaching methods. Many of the stories made in our workshops are directly connected to the images collected in life's journey. But their primary concern is encouraging thoughtful and emotionally direct writing.
Storytellers' Websites:
http://www.paulinecordiner.co.ukOur own Pauline has a new shiny site to promote her storytelling activities
www.uponmyword.co.uk
GAS member, Anna Fancett's web page.
http://www.storyarts.org
Storyteller, oral historian and educationalist, Heather Forest PhD, is based in Huntingdon, New York state, USA. Her material is mainly aimed at school-age children, and she has published a number of educational resources in book and audio format.
From her website - Heather's minstrel style of storytelling blends original music, folk guitar, poetry, prose and the sung and spoken word. She has toured her repertoire of world folktales for the past thirty years to theatres, major storytelling festivals, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad.
http://www.petecastle.co.uk
Storyteller, singer and editor of Facts and Fiction magazine, Peter Castle hails from Belper, Derbyshire. Family and friends help Pete out on his gigs. Site has a shop, a link to his daughter Lucy's site, and a few other things.
http://www.hauntedhike.com/
International storyteller, Dale Jarvis from St. John's, Newfoundland, hosts the St. John's storytelling circle and the infamous Haunted Hike, where in his alter ego of Rev Thomas Wyckham Jarvis, he takes Newfees and visitors alike on a tour of the city's spooky sites, telling the tales as he goes. Dale in his other life is a folklorist and writer.
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Culture/StorytellersCircle/
Storytellers Circle of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
http://www.weetom.com/
Glasgow storyteller, Michael Kerins' site, which features his character, wee tom. Events, links, story resources, contact details. Very entertaining site, orientated towards children.
http://www.thestoryteller.co.uk/
Rona Barbour, sister of the above MK, resides near Manchester, and is involved in storytelling in schools, and healing through storytelling. Born in Glasgow too, Rona has been around the world sharing her own brand of tales.
http://www.taffythomas.co.uk/
Taffy Thomas, MBE, currently artistic director of Tales in Trust, the Northern Centre for Storytelling, in Grasmere, the Lake District, and owner of the Tale Coat.
Taffy's 'tale coat' was as much a star at the Traditional Storytelling Weekend in 2005 as this great storyteller himself! The coat 'does what it says on the tin', it is decorated with all the characters and images from Taffy's own tales, marvel at this amazing work of art!
http://www.scop.co.uk/
David Brown, a GAS regular and storyteller specialising in the ancient epic tales of Europe, including Britain, Iceland, Scandinavia. Reworking the style of the old Celtic and Viking sagas, David believes in remaining faithful to the tale itself to suit audiences young and old. He has a number of CDs of his tales. The website features these, the story list for adults, children and his contact details. The site is part of the The Great British Storytelling SiteRing
http://www.storiesplus.co.uk/
STORIESplus... is John and Noreen Hamilton. We are storytellers with a particular interest in the use of stories in education and in environmental and historical interpretation. Based in Scotland, stories aimed at schools and children's educational groups. celticstories@hotmail.com or Tel 01721 723 643
http://www.poetician.com/
From William Ness, storyteller, a lovely site for children with lots of educational content. He also presents more philosophical thoughts at www.poetician.biz
Local storyteller, Fiona-Jane Brown's site
Other sites:
http://www.archaeolink.co.uk/Archaeolink Prehistory Park, Oyne, Aberdeenshire: Archaeolink is a multi award winning living history park and visitor attraction, with a central focus on education, participation and fun. It is also GAS's new partner in storytelling events in the Grampian area. Archaeolink will be hosting 'Family Friendly Meets' where children can enjoy the ancient art of storytelling, which is odler than the Mesolithic farmers themselves!
Travel 10,000 years in one day from the Mesolithic to a Roman Marching Camp, with indoor and outdoor exhibitions, featuring hands on activities, workshops and guided tours everyday, Archaeolink is a dynamic historical experience for all the family. Situated in the beautiful countryside of Aberdeenshire in the shadow of the dramatic Bennachie mountain range, the park occupies a central location in the diverse archaeological landscape of North East Scotland.
www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone
Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen: Centre of the study and promotion of North-East Scotland's folklore in its contemporary and historical settings. Home of the Elphinstone Kist - a North-East Doric poetry and language resource aimed at children, designed by Sheena Blackhall & Les Wheeler. Elphinstone also holds traditional events throughout the year such as the Cullerlie Singing Weekend (July); and storytelling/singing events on a monthly basis.
Aberdeen University English Department
The Knight and the Lion www.abdn.ac.uk/english/lion/
and Beowulf for Beginners www.abdn.ac.uk/english/beowulf/ are two excellent online storytelling resources aimed at children.
They feature readings, text, sounds, and other useful links. Ideal for teachers looking for history project material! Do email us with your thoughts on this resource, we at GAS would like to see much more of this type of material online.
http://www.scottishculture.org
Scottish Culture & Traditions Association. Promotes the teaching of traditional Scottish music/song/langauge through adult evening classes at Harlaw Academy, Aberdeen, during the school term, and ceilidhs during the year. GAS honorary president Stanley Robertson holds ballad and story classes there on a regular basis
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/oillives/
Lives in the Oil Industry - The Oral History of the UK North Sea Oil & Gas Industry. A project managed by GAS friend, Hugo Manson, for Aberdeen University. For the last five years Hugo has been meeting and interviewing many people involved with North Sea oil to create this project.
The project comes in a line of oral histories covering the fields of industry, society and the arts recorded by The British Library since the start of the National Life Story Collection in 1987 by Professor Paul Thompson. Oral history, as Hugo says himself, is just another storytelling activity, and we are pleased to represent such a project here. Much like the Persephone Project, Hugo has been hearing the stories of those who made the oil industry what it is today.
http://www.arohascotland.org/
Hugo is also involved in AROHA (Aberdeen & Region Oral History Association), which has links with Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen University History Dept, the Town & County History Society and GAS.
http://www.stonehavenfolkfestival.co.uk/
The Stonehaven Folk Festival: one of our annual local folk fests, which takes place in July every year, and features the World Paper & Comb Championship, the Aqua Ceilidh amongst a host of great folk artists. Contact meg_findlay@yahoo.co.uk for details.
http://www.scotslanguage.com
Scots Language Resource Centre: this is the home of all things Scots Language (that's Doric to you and me in the North-East, folks!) at the AK Bell Library in Perth.
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com
The Scottish Book Trust has a direct link with the Scottish Storytelling Centre, in that all storytellers registered in the SSC directory can also gain access to the directory run by SBT. This in turn provides access to financial support for storytelling sessions, where organisations successfully apply for vouchers to part-pay the cost of a hiring a storyteller. Even if you're not a storyteller, it is worth looking at their site to find out about the variety of events and programmes which SBT organises.
http://www.lapidus.org.uk
Lapidus is an organisation representing practictioners in the therapeutic field, using story, poetry, writing and other media to work with a range of clients. Another site worth checking to discover the diversity of the arts in practice.
http://www.storynet.org
If you want to spread your storytelling wings, then take off to this site, which is the National Storytelling Network of the US. Learn about the development of the renaissance of interest in storytelling in North America; you can subscribe to StoryTelling Magazine, their bi-monthly publication, and learn about their annual festival, now in its 32nd year - which usually has anything from 5000 to 10,000 people attending - imagine that! They run conferences, special interest groups and provide a vast range of storytelling resources. Storytelling is such a versatile art form, you might as well find out about how folk are developing their work on both sides of the pond, if not beyond!
Storytellers' BlogsA "blog" or "weblog" is a site where people can voice their opinions - storytelling blogs tell stories and invite comments.http://ascottishstoryteller.blogspot.com Pauline Cordiner, GAS regular
http://storyquine.blogspot.com Fiona-Jane Brown, GAS regular
http://doodledaddle.blogspot.com/ Intangible Cultural Heritage
http://dalejarvis.blogspot.com/
Search Out A Story
General storytelling searches - why not simply go into a search engine (e.g. www.google.co.uk) and type in "storytelling" as a search word - you might be lucky to get only 10,000 possible hits. It'll take you the rest of your life to read through all the references but there are some amazing finds out there! Go for it!!!
