Space of Wonder

100 Story Building is a unique centre for young writers in Footscray, Melbourne. In 2019, they embarked on an ambitious new pilot Story Hub to create imaginative new spaces across Victoria for young writers to pen, draw, read, tell, share, craft and design stories in. Jess Tran, co-founder of 100 Story Building and Manager of its Story Hubs and Evaluation, explains how this new concept in education aims to expand the imagination and creativity of children and young people of marginalised backgrounds.

In the north-western suburbs of Melbourne there’s a school called Meadows Primary. About 300 students each day walk up the brick lined path, between the Community Hub building and the kindergarten playground, and into the big foyer area before heading off to their classrooms for a day of learning. The morning drop-off is alive with chattering children, parents greeting each other ‘As-salamu Alaikum!’ and, on one particular day early this year, a little ginger kitten yowling to be admitted to the office.

 

In other words, it’s a typical public school in the multicultural community of Broadmeadows.

 

Except for the strange phenomena observed and recorded by students and staff last year. It began with the strange and innocuous noises coming from the PA system. Soon after, multi-coloured slime began to drip from giant ventilation pipes in the courtyard, and a mossy block of ice appeared in the playground. CCTV footage even captured teachers chasing unidentifiable beings after-hours. The principal broadcast via video-link from an unknown location and cautioned students about the ‘leaks’, particularly in the vicinity of the Community Hub at the front of the school.

 

The strange phenomena was, in fact, part of an ambitious pilot project by 100 Story Building called Story Hubs which aims to make schools safe spaces for imagination and creative risk-taking. Over the next two years, three schools and one community partner are using Story Hubs to inspire creativity in everyday teaching and learning.

 

At Meadows Primary, the control panel lights up to reveal objects displaced from distant worlds. In Sunshine Primary, the library shares space with a portal, a gumball machine and the light and dark magic that seeps into the room from the other worlds connected to their Story Hub. At Copperfield College, a bougie dragon and a tree that grows only through stories take refuge in an empty classroom. The transformation of these areas was driven entirely by student imagination and ideas. 

 

These Story Hubs are liminal spaces between imagination and reality as well as invitations to play and invent.

They are designed to be places of creative risk-taking, where the messy, unpredictable creative process can be safely explored and facilitated.

100 Story Building staff and young students get ready to take adults on a tour of Meadows Story Hub, aka, World’s only traffic control room for inter-dimensional exploration.

A wealth of research exists that shows arts education positively affects not just students but also teachers, schools and the wider community. It improves relationships, communication, participation and engagement within and around schools. It is central to developing skills that children and young people need now and in the future: social intelligence, critical thinking, entrepreneurship and resilience.

 

But too often creativity and ‘the arts’ are relegated to specific curriculum subjects or considered covered by one-off artist-in-schools programs. The opportunities to embed imagination and play into everyday teaching and learning become fewer and fewer as students progress towards their final years of secondary schooling. And even though the right to arts education is enshrined in the national curriculum, students in low socio-economic or marginalised communities often miss out thanks to lack of specialist teacher training and resources in their schools. Research tells us that these students are the ones who stand to gain the most.

 

With Story Hubs, we hope to change that. Using the creative space as a resource we work with teachers to develop their skills in facilitating the messy, unpredictable environment that creativity thrives in. Already we hear teachers noticing increased sharing of ideas and reflecting on the improved dialogue they have with their students. Teachers are integrating approaches and strategies borrowed from a wide range of creative disciplines (theatre, writing, game-design, visual arts) into their writing lessons, or using the opportunities provided by the Story Hub to build a numeracy lesson with an authentic, visible outcome.

 

Our vision is for schools to be places that nurture creativity and support children and young people to take creative risks. For that we need to support teachers, who are doing the hard and critical work of educating students, to foster their own love of imagination and play by embedding creative teaching and learning in their practice.

 

And the point of the inter-dimensional control room?

To make visible student ideas and show the power of student voice. To have fun, and remember that learning and creativity can be joyful.

The Story Hubs pilot is possible thanks to the generous support of the Aesop Foundation, The Ian Potter Foundation, The Samuel Nissen Charitable Foundation, H & L Hecht Trust, King and McMillan Foundation, the Australian Communities Foundation and our valued individual donors.

WORDS: JESS TRAN
PHOTOGRAPHY: 100 STORY HUB