Kist o Riches’ Events Celebrate Scotland’s Year of Stories

Kist o Riches/Tobar an Dualchais has organised two storytelling events in Edinburgh in early May as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories.

The first event, a storytelling workshop, is being held on the afternoon of Saturday 7 May in the Scottish Storytelling Centre. The workshop will be a great opportunity for people interested in storytelling to develop their storytelling skills with assistance from two highly experienced storytellers, Donald Smith and Ruth Kirkpatrick. Donald and Ruth will demonstrate a variety of storytelling techniques by selecting stories from the many to be found on the Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches website and re-telling them in a way which demonstrates some of these techniques.

Photo of Donald Smith, one of the leaders of the storytelling workshop. — Donald Smith, one of the leaders of the storytelling workshop.

Photo of storyteller Ruth Kirkpatrick, who will be leading the workshop with Donald Smith. — Storyteller Ruth Kirkpatrick, who will be leading the workshop with Donald Smith.

‘Stories from the Kist’ is a special evening of storytelling in Scots and Doric which is being held on the same day, also in the Storytelling Centre. During this event, Jess Smith, Tim Porteus and Jackie Ross, three of Scotland’s most gifted storytellers, will tell stories relating to nature and place.

There are almost 8,000 stories on the Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches website and the guest storytellers for the evening event will use it as inspiration to find stories which they will tell in their own way. The event will showcase some of the wonderful stories to be found on the site and will also highlight the importance of storytelling in Scottish communities.

Photo of Doric speaker Jackie Ross, one of the storytellers who will be performing at 'Stories from the Kist'. — Doric speaker Jackie Ross, one of the storytellers who will be performing at 'Stories from the Kist'.

Floraidh Forest, Director of Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches commented: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to host two events which will celebrate the richness and diversity of stories on our website which are told in Scots and Doric, including those within the Traveller community, as part of the Year of Stories 2022. We hope that these events will give people a sense of both community and commonality within Scotland's multicultural society.”

The events have been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

Marie Christie, Head of Development at VisitScotland said: "We are delighted to be supporting these two events through the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. Events like these play an important role in our communities as they sustain livelihoods and help to celebrate and promote our unique places, spaces and stories. Themed Years are all about collaboration and Museums Galleries Scotland, National Lottery Heritage Fund and VisitScotland are pleased to work in partnership to create this fund to showcase community stories. By supporting events like these taking place within our communities, new opportunities with be provided for locals and visitors to come together and find out more about the diverse stories, past and present, that our communities have to share.”

Tickets for both events are available from the Scottish Storytelling Centre: https://scottishstorytellingcentre.online.red61.co.uk/events?s=&to=&from=&from_sec=&to_sec=&start_date=07%2F05%2F2022