image by Helen Oxenbury

Ever wanted to step inside your favourite children’s adventure?

We can’t go under it,
We can’t go over it,
We’ve got to go to it!

Swash your way the long grass
Sploosh through a river
Stumble through the dark wood
Then tiptoe into a gloomy cave…
…and rub noses with a great big friendly Bear

The hands-on, interactive experience, with hidden rooms, a bear’s den and giant chocolate cake, was designed by Discover Children’s Story Centre, Stratford, London. The installation features twenty-five-year-old children’s classic book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by former Children’s Laureate and well loved author Michael Rosen and award winning illustrator Helen Oxenbury. This brand new, pop-up style installation is touring the UK and Cornwall College Camborne is its debut location. Visit us from 14 May to 24 July 2016.

Funded by Arts Council England and Esmee Fairbairn, Michael Rosen’s Bear Hunt, Chocolate Cake and Bad Things truly reflects Michael’s energy and passion for education, creativity and writing. Younger children will be able to participate in a Bear Hunt trail whilst older children can go on a fun fact finding mission and create poems of their own to takeaway. Michael has collaborated on the project, and the exhibition will feature hidden rooms where clues can be found that reveal the inspiration behind Michael’s writing, including his Grandparents’ sitting room and his childhood classroom.

Bear Hunt, Chocolate Cake and Bad Things

KEAP and The Story Republic are very proud to be working on ‘Home Service’, a three year programme of work bringing great art to older people in care homes funded by Arts Council England and The Baring Foundation. 

Key aims of Home Service:

• encourage residential care providers in partnership with arts organisations to commit to and invest in on-going programmes that give residents access to high quality arts experiences
• establish a series of sustainable, exemplar, programmes of arts and engagement activity giving older people in residential care access to a wide range of quality arts experiences as audiences and participants
• showcase artistic excellence in residential care settings and stretch aspiration for the range of arts that residents can access and experience outside of the care setting eg visits to local arts venues and events
• develop tools and resources for more residential care providers to adopt on-going programmes of arts engagement activity and to provide practical support for them to identify appropriate artists and local arts opportunities
• support the professional development of residential care staff to increase their confidence to deliver arts engagement programmes in their care settings
• support the professional development of artists to create collaborative arts projects with older people, their carers and the wider community through documentation, evaluation and dissemination
• stimulate debate and share learning about approaches to engaging older people in care in the arts and inspire others to develop best practice demonstrating the role of the arts in providing a voice for older people and bring local communities and people  in care homes closer together

The Story Republic will be bringing writers into residential homes to collect residents’ stories, and rewrite them for performance by The Story Republicans.