Oxford's newest museum is starting life with an exhibition that will be telling many a tale.
The Story Museum, which is based at Rochester House, in Pembroke Street, plans to set 25 creative teams loose in the building in May next year with a free rein to allow their imaginations to run wild.
With the museum set to officially open its doors in 2014, the exhibition, which is helping to raise money for the museum, will see a writer pair up with an artist to create unusual installations that tell a story or two.
Cath Nightingale, marketing officer for the Story Museum, said the idea behind the Other Worlds exhibition was for the teams to be inspired by the warren of empty, dilapidated rooms and transform them into a cathedral of storytelling.
"They will be interpretations in order for the public to get a feel for the place and for them to know about the museum," she said. "The artists will be responding to the spaces available to them and it is a very exciting project. We are really looking forward to seeing the artists ideas."
The idea for the project came from the Dark Angels group, who run workshops, courses and masterclasses in creative writing, which look at how to use words imaginatively within the business environment. Stuart Delves, one of the founders of Dark Angels, said that even when empty the buildings at Rochester House were atmospheric.
"I was at one of our masterclasses in Oxford during April and we decided to do our research project at the museum as we saw the potential there to do a creative project," he told the Guardian. "The museum is a warren of rooms which are very evocative.
"This project is very exciting for the Dark Angels as it will be a public window for the work we do. We are all about creative writing and ideas. It is giving us an opportunity to go public and show the imaginative work we produce."
While members of the Dark Angels will be taking part in the project, the museum has also approached the likes of writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen, who is also a patron of the museum, and poet Kate Clanchy about taking part.
