StoryQuest runs until the end of November, kicking off with National Storytelling Day on November 2

Museums, galleries, libraries and heritage sites are getting behind StoryQuest, the 2007 National Festival of Storytelling.

Organised by The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts the festival aims to promote storytelling in the home and at cultural venues across the country.

The festival kicks off with Family Storytelling Day on November 2 2007 with events will running throughout November 2007.

Events include Honouring the Ancestors at Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre near Peterborough on November 3, Tales of Ancient Egypt, China and Europe at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge on November 10, and Stories from the Titanic and Traditional Irish Tales at the Ulster American Folk Park on November 17.

The StoryQuest website has lots of handy hints on how to tell better stories

“We hope the StoryQuest event will spark the imaginations in the young and the old as stories are a great way of bringing communities together and learning about different cultures,” said Jody Williams from Flag Fen.

“We decided to focus our participation in the festival around ‘Honouring the Ancestors’ which is appropriate at this time of year which is just passing the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts believed Samhain was magical as it was the time when the dead walked among the living and they worshipped those who had passed before.”

Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre. Courtesy Toby Fox.

StoryQuest is also running a competition to win a site-specific storytelling commission, created and performed by professional performance storytellers. The prize will go to a venue that organises the most inventive and inspiring storytelling event during the festival.

For more information on the National Festival of Storytelling and Family Storytelling Day see the StoryQuest website.