The Ministry of Stories works with writers and school children to develop storytelling and writing skills. We worked within a diverse creative team, including taxidermy artist and prop maker Jaime Johnson, carpenter Kester Hoefkens and theatre producer Leena Telen-Eley, to develop a shop display unit that would hold objects that could be used for workshops.

The design consisted of a ‘Cabinet of Monstrosities’, for which a corresponding story was invented that became part of a series of events, including a series of new stories relating to the local area.

Artefacts were invented and made in workshops with children in the Ministry of Stories or reinvented – for example a backscratcher for a monster, a 3-eyed pair of glasses, mouse earrings – to reinforce the cabinet story.

Photography: David Lambert, Jason Fox