Armstrong Storytelling Trust Trustees Report: Year Ending May 2025
Significant Activities & Project Updates
The table is an illustration of the activity undertaken in the period June 2024 to end of May 2025.
| May 2025. | |
|---|---|
| Activities | Numbers |
| Zoom Storytelling Sessions | 12 |
| Live Storytelling Session in Venues | 206 |
| Storytelling Events | 218 |
| Storytelling Sessions with Liz Weir | 69 |
| Storytelling Sessions with Guest tellers | 149 |
| Training Courses delivered | 10 |
| Training Course Attendees | 148 |
| Yarnspinners Attendance | 866 |
| Total Attendees at AST Events | 10,535 |
Activity highlights
Attendees at AST events increased by 60% in 2024-25, with 10,535 attendees vs 6,594 in the previous year.
The number of events delivered decreased by 9%, 218 vs 241 in the previous year.
The jump in attendees at events is largely down to the relationship built with the Folk Museum. This saw AST deliver several storytelling events at the Museum over the Christmas period and to celebrate St Patricks Day. Up to 500 people attended each of these events.
Internal projects
- Story Dome
In December 2024 AST allocated resources to a project to bring the Story Dome, an immersive storytelling experience from Vicky McFaland, out into eight venues across Northern Ireland. Between January 2025 and the end of May 2025, four of these
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Armstrong Storytelling Trust Trustees Report: Year Ending May 2025
sessions have been delivered to schools in Cushendall, Tandragee, Carrickfergus and Belfast with further sessions planned before the end of 2025. Each of the schools are supplied with learning resources linked to the Tizzy Day story, with feedback sought from the teachers and school on the overall experience. This information will be used to make an application for external funding to support further school based sessions.
Syrian Women’s stories
With the women’s stories collected, the next step was to find a suitable translator to transcribe the recordings into Arabic and then translate them into English, with the goal of publishing the stories in both languages. A Syrian member of staff from QUB has now agreed to carry out this work.
Training & Development
We delivered 10 x training sessions for Storytellers and library staff.
These included:
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5 x online storytelling training workshops delivered by Liz Weir to Libraries NI staff. These sessions focused on storytelling skills for children and best practice in reminiscence, for those living with dementia.
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3 x workshops delivered at the Federation of European Storytellers Conference in Glasgow, 2024 by Liz Weir, Colin Urwin and Vicky McFarland. Their workshops focused on the creation of stories using old objects, reminiscence and storytelling in a digital sphere.
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Daniel Morden delivered a workshop in Belfast Central Library for storytellers in February 2025. The workshop outlined strategies to adapt an antiquated text into the basis of a 21st Century performance. The course covered a range of traditional stories, from folktale to myth and focused on story structure and characterisation
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Maria Whatton delivered a workshop to storytellers in November 2024 entitled The Leap of The Imagination. This workshop dealt with the theme of harnessing creativity and using it to bring stories to life.
Yarnspinners
Yarnspinners sessions took place in Tullycarnet, Bangor and Lisburn City libraries. Storytellers from Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales and England were featured. Attendance decreased by 19% in 2024 – 2025 with 866 attendees vs 1,061 in 202324. This was despite introducing an earlier start time for the Tullycarnet Yarnspinners session at 7pm rather than 8pm.
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Armstrong Storytelling Trust Trustees Report: Year Ending May 2025
Glens Storytelling Festival October 2024
With funding support secured from Causeway Coast & Glens Heritage Trust, Causeway Coast & Glens Council, Enkalon Foundation and Glens of Antrim Distillery, AST organised the Glens Storytelling Festival, held from Thursday 17[th] to Sunday 20[th] October. A range of 20 events was offered, the majority in person, with one hybrid story swap, with a total of 555 attendees.
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
2024 – 25 saw the successful close out of 2 ACNI funded projects.
The Memories are Made of this Project- Phase 2 was funded with £4,100 under the Rural Engagement Arts fund, saw us engage with 7 x rural groups, providing each one with 4 x reminiscence sessions, with local primary school children joining the group for the final session.
The Reclaim, Reframe, Reflect project funded under the ACNI Commissioning Programme , saw the creation of A Cloak of Wisdom. The 3 artists involved from AST are Liz Weir, Anne Harper and Vicky McFarland. This piece had its premiere at the Glens Storytelling Festival in October 2024 to a sold-out audience in the Old Church Centre, Cushendun and a few days later was performed at the Fado Fado Festival at the Lexicon in Dun Laoghaire. Plans are underway to find further performance bookings for the show in 2025.
BorderTalk project – phase 2
With Storytellers of Ireland as lead partner, this project was awarded a further one year of funding. It will see the delivery of one final accredited storytelling course delivered for residents of Counties Derry and Donegal, with the establishment of storytelling clubs in areas where storytelling training was delivered in phase one of the project. These clubs now provide paid storytelling opportunities for storytellers and for the host of the sessions. These take place in Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh, and Cavan. This project will compete in December 2025.
Partnership with Ulster Folk Museum
A newly developed partnership with the Ulster Folk Museum marks an exciting step forward for AST. Through this collaboration, the museum will invite AST to provide storytellers for key celebrations throughout the year, including Hallowe’en, Christmas, Burns Night, St Patrick’s Day, and International Women’s Day. This partnership offers a valuable platform for our freelance storytellers to share their craft
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Armstrong Storytelling Trust Trustees Report: Year Ending May 2025
with new and diverse audiences, while enriching the museum’s seasonal programming with authentic voices and engaging cultural experiences.
Openreach Community Fund
A small grant of £2000 from the Openreach Community Fund allowed AST to deliver a project called From Glen To Glen. This saw AST work with two rural community groups to provide storytelling sessions. Glenarm Friendship Group and Glenravel Healthy Club each had eight sessions in their own premises, with the groups coming together for a very enjoyable finale session in Glenravel in late May.
DAERA micro grants
A successful application was made to DAERA under the micro grant scheme for £663 to purchase a portable speaker, microphone and stand. This equipment will be used by AST storytellers in venues where amplification is required, such as libraries and community halls.
Income Generation
The following income was generated from funding applications made during the financial year to support the various projects undertaken.
| Funder | Date | Award | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| Openreach Community Fund Community Foundation |
June 2024 | £2,000 | From Glen to Glen Work with 2 x groups Glenarm and Glenravel and provide 8 storytelling sessions to each with a finale event for the groups to come together. |
| Enkalon Foundation | Sept 2024 | £500 | Glens Storytelling Festival 2024 |
| CCGHT | Oct 2024 | £3,200 | Glens Storytelling Festival 2024 |
| International Fund for Ireland December | International Fund for Ireland December 2024 |
€3,400 | Border Talk project |
| DAERA Micro Grants | January 2025 |
£663 | Purchase of portable speaker, microphone and stand. |
| Total | £6,363 €3,400 |
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Armstrong Storytelling Trust Trustees Report: Year Ending May 2025
Plans for 2025-26
The Glens Storytelling Festival 2025 will take place from 24- 26 October. CCGHT have allocated £3,200 to the festival in 2025 with an additional application being made to the Enkalon Foundation.
In 2025–26, AST will focus on identifying opportunities to secure funding for both core operations and project delivery. With the current Heritage Lottery funding coming to an end in late 2025, sourcing new support for core costs presents a key challenge. Transitioning towards more project-based activity and exploring partnership opportunities to support outreach work will be central to sustaining AST in the short to medium term.
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