wecreate

During this cosy event we heard the beautiful legend of the Fir Tree, narrated by Iulia Iordan with her Kamishibai theatre-frame* and observed how the images help the story unfold. We created together personalized pull-out cards to tell our own winter stories, perfect companions for every Christmas tree.
Illustrator Madalina Andronic was our special guest, reading her exquisite book "Five Sisters" (Stephanie Campisi – Familius US, 2020), a tale of heartache, hope, and love.

*Kamishibai means "paper drama" in Japanese and is an extremely versatile storytelling method, used in non-formal and formal education settings to enhance children's creativity, confidence and collaboration.

Library on Stage. Winter Stories

Your space to read, create and connect.

12th December, Online

This workshop is part of the project Library on Stage aiming to transform the library room at RCI London into a community cultural hub, with a focus on young audiences.

Link to the programme/festival's brochure:

http://www.icr-london.co.uk/article/festive-children-s-workshop.html

Drawing stories.
Storytelling workshop with Maria and Ileana Surducan

Authors Maria and Ileana Surducan read from "Vacanta lui Nor / Nor's holiday", the delightful story of a boy spending the summer holiday in a remote village with his grandparents. What seemed to be a disaster turns into a magical adventure, with Nor exploring the natural surroundings together with his two new friends – Skai and Laci.
The children were happy to (virtually) meet Nor and very engaged in doing a live interactive drawing session with Ileana and Maria. We talked about comic books and how images can create fascinating stories, and then the participants had a go at drawing their heroes-characters and imagined their super-powers.

*Maria and Ileana Surducan are two talented sisters living in Cluj, passionate about illustrated storytelling. They created, together and individually, an impressive number of comics and graphic novels (published in Romanian, French and English). Their multi-disciplinary work often refers to traditional Romanian folktales, but in a modern and lively way.

This event was part of Romania Rocks, the first Romanian British Literature Festival, organised by RCI London.

Link to the programme/festival's brochure:

http://www.icr-london.co.uk/files/uploads/files/RomaniaRocks-FestivalProgramme(4).pdf

Crafting Stories. Making your Museum
Workshop with Marlene Stanciu (KraftMade)

What stories do the objects that we value tell, and how can we tell these stories in a meaningful way? Artist Marlene Stanciu guided the children in imagining small personal museums and discovering forgotten family stories. She also showed us and talked about some fascinating objects that she and her partner Alex Herberth saved and brought back to life in their traditional house in the village of Cincu, in Transylvania.

KraftMade research & lab studio in rural Transylvania creates site-specific, materials exhibitions, performative (design) objects, and unique capsule collections/editions. Their current practice highlights hands-on education and restoration initiatives via craft techniques and residencies that focus primarily on wood/textiles and heritage/future initiatives. (Abigail Doan)

This event was part of Romania Rocks, the first Romanian British Literature Festival, organised by RCI London.

Stories to Remember. Creating Unique Characters
Illustration workshop with Axel Scheffler
based on a short story by writer and translator Florin Bican

The famous illustrator Axel Scheffler discussed with the children about the necessary steps in making a great book and more specifically about creating memorable characters. He showed us his drawing techniques working on the story of Prince White-a-Moor and the Bear's Lettuce Garden, a craftily rewriting of a classical Romanian folktale. He then guided the children in imagining their illustrated versions of the text.

Axel Scheffler has illustrated some of the world's most-loved children's books and has created the one and only Gruffalo.
Florin Bican is well-known for his jolly translations of the famous children's books created by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, but also for his own brilliant, playful writing.

This event was part of Romania Rocks, the first Romanian British Literature Festival, organised by RCI London

Collecting Stories. Design workshop with Anca Mihalache, Anastasia Stan and Alex Axinte

During this second (online) workshop part of #LFADigital, the children were
invited to reimagine the space of the library by building some models with their preferred materials. Following a creative exercise inspired by the story of Alice in Wonderland, the participants shared their ideas about what type of design they would like to experience and what kind of activities they would dream of having in their community place.
The resulting models were impressive in their diversity and approach. Still, we were able to identify a few recurring ideas: relaxing space, presence of nature, reading spots, play areas and an element of drama / a curious thing.