Funded: £4,717
Campaign: Space For Storytelling
Vanessa Woolf, London storyteller extraordinaire, ran a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2022 to set up Storytelling Co-Op, a brand new storytelling club. So far it’s provided a free wheelchair-accessible room for storytellers to practice their craft, helped emerging storytellers get their first paid gigs, and welcomed a brilliantly diverse audience.
But as part of running it, it became clear that emerging storytellers also wanted to build their skills and connect with each other in even more ways. What’s more, the skills they’ve asked to grow are just as useful for others who use spoken word as part of their practice – actors, authors, stand-ups, poets. But finding space in busy London makes it incredibly hard to come together for work like this.
So Vanessa decided to start something new: Space For Storytelling.
London is supposed to be a hub of arts and culture – but our indie and grassroots spaces are closing around us as rents go sky high. Low income and marginalised artists suffer most. How can artists thrive without space?
London’s venues, rooms, opportunities are vanishing around us as the cost-of-living crisis bites. SPACE FOR STORYTELLING will partner with The Bridge at Waterloo and offer:
- A free after-work space to learn and network in a disability-positive venue.
- Free workshops for anyone who uses spoken word or storytelling as part of their practice.
- Paid opportunities for artists at all levels including apprenticeships.
- Outreach storytelling performance opportunities.
- A free venue to perform longer pieces to a live audience.
- A central London location.
- Welcoming The Bridge community, many of whom have experienced homelessness or are refugees.
- Welcoming low income and otherwise disadvantaged storytellers and listeners.
The Space For Storytelling campaign offered an extraordinary selection of rewards, many of which were donated by some of the leading lights in storytelling and illustration – and the support and enthusiasm for the project, coming from both audiences and artists at all stages of their career, shows how precious spaces like this are.