Those of you with good memories might recollect that I visited Newcastle’s Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books for the first time last June (pictures above), to meet with “Creative Lead in Residence” Richard O’Neill MBE.
At the time, I described our meeting, a little cryptically, as a chance “to talk about opportunities for collaboration”. Nine months later, you may have spotted on World Book Day yesterday the reveal of what that meeting has led to – the first ever Seven Stories “Two Tales” pop-up, coming soon to Prince Bishops Place in Durham!
You can read all about the pop-up in the press release here.
Immersive
It sounds great – according to the news story, “Visitors to the Seven Stories pop-up can look forward to a dynamic environment where books can be explored, discussed and purchased. In addition to an immersive exhibition space, there will be interactive storytelling sessions, and educational workshops designed to engage young minds and support literacy development.”
The pop-up will add to Durham’s growing reputation as a hotspot for booklovers – the city centre now has eight bookshops, four of those new since Covid, including two that I helped get started – and surely complement and contribute to the annual Durham Children’s Book Festival, organised by wonderful indie bookshop BookWyrm, which is due to return in August.
Introduction
During my meeting with Richard all those months ago, we talked about how Seven Stories might grow its reach and impact outside of Newcastle, and I suggested the possibility of a Prince Bishops Place pop-up.
After the meeting, I did my Retail Cupid introduction by email – connecting Richard and his Seven Stories colleagues with the team at the shopping centre – and then let others work their magic!
That’s the nature of what I do – I can help light the spark, but it only works because of brilliant partners and stakeholders across the city, including at Durham County Council and Prince Bishops Place, who are just as passionate as I am about making positive and creative things happen.
I can’t wait to see the pop-up when it opens, and I’m sure it will bring local children and families lots of inspiration and pleasure in the coming months!
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