The Story Museum for Brilli-ANT Exhibition
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Giant cardboard insects
take over The Story
Museum for Brilli-ANT
exhibition
A giant anthill will appear at The Story Museum in Oxford for a new immersive exhibition, created to help children connect with the natural world and tackle climate anxiety. The upcoming exhibition Brilli-ANT, opening on 27th May, welcomes visitors into the world of insects and sets the challenge of working together to save the anthill from extinction.
The Story Museum worked closely with entomologists and climate experts, including Noga Levy-Rapoport, Tom Brown and Mim Saxl, to ensure that the exhibition empowers children to connect with planet earth and the impact of climate change on different species.
Brilli-ANT gives children and their families the opportunity to put on a pair of ant antennae, before they travel through anthill tunnels, searching for clues and stories. On their way, they’ll meet a host of giant insects made out of recycled cardboard by sculptor Lottie Smith. From dung beetles explaining recycling, to bumblebees showing the importance of helping others - each insect has a story to tell about how their species has adapted to climate change.
Brilli-ANT is designed to give children practical ways to tackle climate change in an engaging and thought-provoking way, without making them feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. The story behind the exhibition – developed in partnership with author Chitra Soundar Chitra Soundar and illustrator Barry Falls – shows how even the smallest ant can change a big story. Original music by Cosmo Sheldrake completes the immersive experience for the whole family.
As they explore the exhibition, children will be encouraged to interact with different stories through interactive experiences hidden around the installation. The stories will showcase a variety of storytelling formats such as books (Clean Up by Nathan Byron and Dapo Adeola, The Last Wild by Piers Torday), films (Pixar’s Wall-E) and video games (Botanicula from Aminita Designs). The Story Museum is dedicated to representing stories in all forms and making reading an accessible, enjoyable experience for children of all ages and abilities.
Caroline Jones, Director of The Story Museum, comments, “We look forward to welcoming children and their families into the anthill for our new Brilli-ANT exhibition. Stories are crucial to how we interpret the world around us and can help us to imagine possible futures. Making sense of climate change, without losing optimism, is a challenge for everyone but it can be even more bewildering for young minds learning about the world. Our goal with Brilli-ANT is to encourage children to look at the natural world and how other species adapt to climate change in a positive way. It’s not about placing the weight of the world on young shoulders, but instead showing young people that they’re holding the future of the planet gently in their hands.”
Lottie Smith, sculptor, said: “It's great to be involved in a project with such an important message. Brilli-ANT tackles a complex topic without overwhelming people. Instead, the exhibition aims to fill people with hope and show them all the myriad of positive small changes we can make and to help the planet. I'm really looking forward to creating a space that helps make visitors feel like they have walked into the world of the insects by subverting scale and showing how tiny things can make a big impact. The solutions are out there and we can learn from the bugs!”
Noga Levy-Rapoport, climate activist, said: “I'm incredibly excited to support the Brilli-ANT exhibition. At a time when it's imperative for children to feel empowered to face some of the most urgent threats to our collective futures, the tools of knowledge and community support are essential, and that's exactly what the Story Museum provides. Connecting to nature's most familiar faces and friends in this wonderfully affectionate exhibition as well as learning about the history of climate change and how together we can all make enormous change is a deeply powerful and moving experience. I can't wait for this beautiful set of stories to be explored, held dear, and make the next generation of activists and artists feel fully enfranchised.”
Brilli-ANT is supported by Arts Council England and Oxford-based sustainability consultancy, 3Keel LLP.
For press enquiries including interview requests please contact:
Lizzie Hubbard
lizzie.hubbard@flint-culture.com
Notes to editors
Ticket price for the Galleries: £12 pp
Opening hours:
Term time:
Monday – closed
Page 2 of 3
Tuesday to Friday – 09:30-16:30
Saturday & Sunday – 09:30-17:30
Holiday opening (inc half term):
Open daily 09:30-17:30
Open Bank Holiday Mondays 1 & 8 May
About The Story Museum
The Story Museum is a most unusual museum in the heart of Oxford. The Museum aims to enrich lives, especially young lives, through story. The Museum was established to ensure that everyone can enjoy and benefit from engaging with great stories and create stories of their own in a place full of wit and wonder.
Highlights include a Whispering Wood, an Enchanted Library and Small Worlds, a dedicated space for younger children as well as a 100-seat theatre, a learning studio and a temporary exhibition space. In addition to welcoming public visitors and school groups to its Galleries, the Museum also delivers an extensive public programme, including skills courses, workshops, drop-in activities and access visits for those wanting to enjoy the Museum in a more relaxed way, alongside a programme of funded community and school participation projects with targeted groups. The Museum attracts up to 100,000 visitors a year.
Please visit our website for more information and details of museum, shop and café opening hours.
Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk
Instagram: @thestorymuseum
Twitter: @TheStoryMuseum
Facebook: @TheStoryMuseum
Youtube: storymuseum
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. By 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help deliver this vision.
