Why is story important?
In one of our recent webinars, we heard from oral storyteller Claire Murphy, who summed up the answer to why story is important. She told us that telling stories is in our DNA as humans, that ‘Stories activate the brain’ and ‘create empathy’. She shared that, ‘the more you use story, the more you’ll start to see that it brings people’s attention up, it makes people buy-in and often makes people want to know more. So if you’re not using stories, you’re working harder than you have to.’
Through our blogs, galleries and exhibitions on the Europeana website, the Audience Engagement team at the Europeana Foundation use Europe’s cultural heritage to tell stories all the time. But we wanted to see if we could explore more creative storytelling within our exhibitions, starting with story and concentrating on creative collaboration. So for our latest exhibition for Women’s History Month - ‘A female lens - Women, society and the history of photography’, we tried out a new creative workshopping process, which also built on our ‘Seven digital storytelling tips for the cultural heritage sector’.
Working together
The most important thing about our workshopping process was having a close-knit team working together and supporting each other.
We wanted to look at new ways to tell stories for Europeana, and that meant that people needed to try new things. And that can be a bit scary. Not many people are trained in telling stories. It might even be something they haven’t done since they were at school. And so asking people to try something new and to leave their comfort zone is no small thing.
The structure of the workshops - which was set out at the beginning of the project - helped everyone to know where we were in the process, and provided time to address questions and concerns together, and to have a safe space for thinking creatively.
Each of the workshops included moments to check in with each other, finding out how everyone felt about the current step of the process or our progress so far. The process was designed to make sure we were sharing responsibility, with no single person carrying the full responsibility for a chapter, for example. Ideas were generated and responded to together; writing and editing were collaborative, and at the end of each session, we asked people to make their own commitments about what they would do next.
Three storytelling workshops
Our process was structured around three workshops, with participants being asked to carry out activities in between each one. We used Google Meet, Docs and Jamboard to collaborate.
Workshop 1. Concept.
Brainstorm ideas: For us, this meant sharing what we already knew or were interested in on the subject of women and photography.
Identify themes: Here, we saw how our ideas were naturally falling into distinct areas such as first photographs, photography for activism, or self-portraiture.
Consider available content: For us, this meant looking at the content available on Europeana.eu and thinking about issues around copyright - what we could and couldn’t use.
Audience connection: Here, we reminded ourselves of the seven digital storytelling tips, and we used the Europeana Impact Playbook’s Empathy Map to think about the audience experience. We discussed what makes an exhibition engaging and shareable for our audience.
Next steps: Here, each person noted down the role they wanted to take and what they could realistically commit to doing before the next workshop.
Our homework was to research the themes we identified and explore some stories that might be included in the exhibition.
Workshop 2. Shaping.
Review progress: As each person shared the stories they had discovered, the others listened and added words, phrases or ideas that stood out to them to our ‘Board of excitement and intrigue’.
Devise structure: Together, we organised these stories and ideas into chapters.
Next steps: Each person decided what to take on next in terms of writing texts and further research.
Our homework next was to write initial drafts of the chapters we had discussed.
Workshop 3. Reflections.
Review progress: Having shared the draft texts, we reflected on what was remarkable or interesting about the ideas so far, what questions and concerns we had (for example, what was missing from the stories) and what actions we could take to remedy them.
Audience connection: We revisited the storytelling tips and shared ideas about how to apply them in this instance, for example, to include personal quotes from the people we were writing about, and to make our images work harder - we noted for example how effective it is when the text makes direct reference to a photograph, rather than having the photograph simply lie alongside the text as an illustration.
Next steps: Together, we decided on editing responsibilities, making sure that nobody edited the chapter they drafted. This way, we had fresh eyes and ideas on every section.
Once this round of editing was complete, we asked two external readers to proofread the texts and also make any observations they had about the content and structure and what might be missing. From here, the exhibition went into production.
Jolan Wuyts, Collections Editor, was part of the exhibition team. He says, ‘I really enjoyed the story-first approach of this creative process. We started with the interesting individual narratives and stories we found in Europeana's database and then worked together to embed those stories into a coherent whole. This allowed me to focus on just one or two petites histoires that I was enamoured with, and then place that in the larger historical context that the rest of the exhibition provided.’
How did it turn out?
We’d love you to see for yourself! Go to A female lens - Women, society and the history of photography
We’re pleased with the audience feedback so far and we’ll be collecting data over time to see if we’re resonating with our audience with this and other editorial activities as we build on and develop our storytelling approach.
If you’re interested in creative storytelling, join us next week for the Digital Storytelling Festival!