Giant story game

Culture Leicestershire and Mountsorrel Library asked us to create a piece of art that could be played with. “Don’t attach it to anything in the library,” they said. So we made this! A giant game with a different world on each side, filled with wild and wonderful characters ready for adventures across the board.

We ran workshops with a local school to explore ideas and create the worlds together. Each side of the board is hand-painted with the worlds the children imagined during the sessions, and their characters have become the game pieces. We kept the style of their original drawings and used the brilliant names they came up with for the different areas on the board. That way, when they come to play, they can recognise their ideas and see just how important they are!

They can move their characters around the board, race through the Field of Exploding Cows, hide out on Gumdrop Mountain, or grab a snack from the Dragon Fruit Tree.

The project has revitalised the relationship between the library and local primary school, provided creative opportunities and a lasting legacy. It has been an absolute pleasure to work on all round, and a great part of that was you! You’re fantastic to work with. You do everything you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. The way you worked with the children was spot on. You had the confidence to give them space to come up with their own ideas. You were completely at ease and in control. You adapt really easily to things and there was no fuss. 

Helen Murray, Culture Leicestershire