Barnsley Libraries has unveiled The Story Shell, an air-filled space in the shape of a seashell, which will provide a unique and functional art space created by international artists Steve Messam and Suzie Devey.
It measures 9 metres long and 4.5 metres high and will be able to fit a class of 20 children inside. It can be transported across the borough, to host arts-based activities, storytelling, music, theatre and more.
This Saturday (14 September, 2024) as part of Barnsley Garden Party in the Glass Works Square, people will be able to see and explore The Story Shell for the first time.
It measures 9 metres long and 4.5 metres high and will be able to fit a class of 20 children inside. It can be transported across the borough, to host arts-based activities, storytelling, music, theatre and more.
This Saturday (14 September, 2024) as part of Barnsley Garden Party in the Glass Works Square, people will be able to see and explore The Story Shell for the first time.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Story Shell goes right back to childhood when you're walking along that beach and you find
00:09that shell and you pick it up and you put it to your ear and it's really exciting because
00:13you can hear the sound and then you look at it and you think where has this shell been?
00:17Where has it travelled?
00:18What adventures has it had?
00:20That's what we wanted to recreate was that sense of wonder and excitement and adventure
00:24and also flipping that around if you could step inside a story shell, where would it
00:29take you?
00:30That's what we were playing with.
00:31The scale is great and it's nice having something of scale and it looks really really big indoors
00:38and that's brilliant but outdoors it's that scale of a house.
00:43It's all about stories, my practice is very much about stories and capturing that from
00:48other people but it gave us a chance to collaborate and do something together because it was so
00:53exciting for both of us so it was a combined thing really.
00:57And I think that Barnsley Libraries has been really quite brave to commission something
01:01like this to be able to take something like this out there.
01:04You don't know what kind of response that Barnsley Libraries are going to get but I
01:08think it's going to be really exciting and interesting.
01:10I think it's also to recruit artists to do something and to have that different perspective
01:16from an artist's point of view I think is really interesting and exciting, would you
01:22agree?
01:23I love the ambition of the brief in the first place and the idea of taking something like
01:28this and the ambition of thinking differently and challenging people and I think that's
01:34a brave thing to do, it's great.