In our ideal world, there is understanding for each other's culture, and valuable traditions and customs are cherished and passed on. There is no better way to do this than by telling each other beautiful stories. – ROSE stories
These words reflect perfectly why Every Story Matters has found a great partner in ROSE stories as the leader of the Talent Development Programme. Time for an introduction!
ROSE stories believes in the power of the story. Stories represent different believe systems. Storytelling is the sharing of those belief systems, offering new perspectives on the world as it is. Each story bears the potential to open up a new world as well as a sense of belonging in that world for both storyteller and his or her audience. ROSE stories finds new storytellers in the Netherlands and often they find them. Together they tell stories that create spaces for dialogue.
Translating stories from different perspectives into actual projects of art, ROSE stories looks at the most effective way to get each project into the world. Quality and relevance are key. A good story usually tells itself. However, converting ideas into services and products is often also an art: it requires creativity, business sense and a touch of humour.
ROSE stories wants to create space for new storytellers and helps by guiding the storyteller’s business, offering new perspectives, unexpected insights and connecting people. ROSE has successfully published and produced stories in various forms: cookbooks, children’s books, theatrical performances and documentaries as well as talent development programmes.
Based on their previous expertise, ROSE stories drafted and developed the talent development programme that’s part of Every Story Matters. In 2017 and 2018 ROSE organised a talent development programme guiding Dutch authors and illustrators rooted in today’s multi-cultural society to the field of children’s books (ROSE Kinderverhalentraject). Translating this concept into a European context, ROSE stories is guiding six authors and illustrators from the ESM partner countries in their adventure to develop an inclusive story for children.
The Every Story Matters talent programme kicked off last month with an online masterclass for the selected talents on unconscious bias by Nina Blussé. This workshop was supposed to take place in Bologna, but instead was held online due to the precautions taken against the coronavirus. It was nonetheless a very successful and useful workshop. The goal? To give us more insights into (un)conscious bias and how it affects our daily thoughts, feelings and behaviour as well as our work. We explored how these effects can be controlled up to a certain extent and how we can make our illustrating and/or writing more inclusive. An ideal start for the selected authors and illustrators.
In the upcoming months, ROSE Stories will provide more online masterclasses for the talents on various topics: the impact of reading and storytelling to children, how to make your writing/drawing more inclusive, transmedia storytelling etc. After this, the selected talents will take a residency of approximately two weeks in one of the partner countries and write or illustrate a complete new story. Finally, the authors and illustrators will be presenting their work at the Zagreb Book Festival and the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2022, so hopefully all of you out there will be able to read and enjoy their talent. We are looking forward to sharing their stories and illustrations with you!
With support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature
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