In 2022, as part of the SISF Community and Family Programme, The Stone Soup Collective project took place. It was a series of community events facilitated by a storyteller in partnership with a community hub in their local area. A ceilidh of stories, song, and dance with shared food, right in the heart of the … Continued

The Burgh Blatherers is an Edinburgh based group with a relatively short but vibrant history. We started as a small group of likeminded friends coming together informally to practice and share stories in a safe and supportive environment. These mutually supportive gatherings were given a sense of focus and direction when dynamic storyteller, Calum Lykan … Continued

Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2023 Right To Be Human – Open Call for New and Existing Work – The Scottish International Storytelling Festival (SISF) 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our theme ‘Right To Be Human’ celebrates and explores all aspects of our common humanity. In a changing and … Continued

Review by Wangxiu Cheng and Yan Hong We welcome back student teacher-in-residence Wangxiu Cheng for her second-term residency 30 January–10 March 2023 with us at Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. Wangxiu is an award-winning graduate of the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy. She is currently undertaking her MSc studies in Dance Science and Education at the … Continued

To mark World Ocean Day 2021, we can’t think of a better time to share a recap of our wonderful partnership project with YouthLink Scotland. On Our Wavelength is a youth-led project exploring environmental impacts on Scotland’s coastal communities. Take five to read about John Hamilton’s experience of being involved and how he adapted storytelling … Continued

We just celebrated the summer solstice–the longest day of the year–on Sunday, and we’re enjoying the longer daylight hours that summer brings. On Wednesday 24 June, we will celebrate midsummer in Scotland. Midsummer has its roots as a Celtic fire festival, blessing the crops for a fruitful summer harvest with bonfires and using torches to … Continued

The Scottish Storytelling Centre, supported by Scotland’s Winter Festivals event fund, honours the legacy of Robert Burns through a series of cross-generational celebrations, bringing people together home and away. Whether it’s ringing in the New Year with “Auld Lang Syne”, book titles, pop music, or featuring on banknotes – the ploughman’s poet as he’s often … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Indigenous storytelling is very diverse and is only in the last 20 years beginning to make a comeback with many of the younger generation discovering their own through knowing the ancient stories. How did you become a storyteller? My grandmother was a great teller, … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Troll is an important part of the traditional stories told, and there are some stories all children grows up with. In Norway, we are so lucky to have the Cultural Rucksack Programme. The Cultural Rucksack programme is part of the government’s cultural policy. It … Continued

Tell us an interesting feature of traditional storytelling in your country. Storytelling of our oral histories has been carried through song and dance for the Indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of Canada for thousands of years. Our word for oral history translates to coming from the ice, meaning that our stories go back to … Continued