We live in Story
We use Story to sense what’s happening. To find our place. To choose what matters. To stay connected when things get complex. To move together when the next step isn’t obvious. This isn’t just “storytelling” as communication or authorship; it’s Story as a kind of everyday intelligence - shaping how groups learn, decide, build, and care for what they’re making.
StoryArcs begins there: with Story as a living skill in life, learning, and work.
StoryArcs is a research and leadership development programme supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). We work with a network of researchers, cultural organisations, enterprises, and practitioners across the UK, exploring what helps Story stay truthful, useful, and safe in real conditions - especially when there is pressure to simplify, to persuade, or to control.
Welcome Letter
from the Director
Explore the research and thinking behind StoryArcs. Read Professor Bambo Soyinka’s Director’s letter to see why Story Skills matter now, how they shape leadership, learning and care, and what is next for the programme — and to connect with a growing UK-wide community of practitioners, partners and researchers.
Meet The Pilot
Story Fellows
Meet the Senior Fellows from StoryArcs’ pilot phase and explore the projects they delivered with partner organisations across the UK. This work strengthens participation and community voice, supports place-based innovation, and helps research travel further into policy and practice. From local high streets to rural conversations along the Rive Wye, these story-led interventions show how Story Skills can build cohesion, creativity and lasting impact in real settings.
Explore Commissions
Organisations can commission StoryArcs to deliver story-led work that supports real-world impact. We shape and deliver projects with you — from a focused, time-bound piece to longer-curve support — and, where helpful, bring in a Story Fellow or specialist from our network to match the challenge. Our commissions are designed to be accessible and outcomes-focused, helping evidence and values travel further into policy and practice, strengthening collaboration, and supporting change in real setting
Story Skills
StoryArcs turns Story Skills into lived practice, moving them through the real places where decisions are made and futures are shaped. We work in three ways: placements that support Story Fellows to work inside host organisations; commissions that produce impact stories across media; and longer-curve narrative partnerships that help teams shift how an issue is understood over time. Together, these strands form a growing community of Fellows and partners, sharing methods that travel without flattening what is local, lived, and contested.
The impacts are practical and policy-relevant: clearer engagement with evidence, stronger cross-sector collaboration, and narratives that hold complexity without losing care. Across climate, health, culture and education, Story Skills help values stay visible, difficult choices can be named and navigated, and communities build resilience. By treating Story as an ecological capacity—rooted in relationships, place and context—we help organisations communicate with integrity, build trust, and create the conditions for collective action and long-term stewardship.
Explore Our Stories
Across the UK, Story Fellows worked with partner organisations to turn complex challenges into shared understanding and practical change.
These projects strengthened connection, surfaced values, and helped evidence travel further — shaping conversations, decisions, and the conditions for collective action
See how story skills are shaping practice and decision-making below.
Story Fellow
Jenny Hulme
Corsham Stories
Story Fellow Jenny Hulme works with Corsham Town Council to bring the High Street to life. Through collaborative storytelling, she highlights the town’s history, culture, and community, helping inspire sustainable development, enrich local identity, and showcase Corsham as a vibrant, creative, and flourishing place.
Story Fellow
Dr Anna Ploszajski
Storyology Podcast
Dr Anna Ploszajski hosts The Storyology Podcast, revealing how science and story intersect. Each episode uncovers the challenges and possibilities of science communication, with expert insights from research, media, and public engagement, amplifying the impact of scientific knowledge.
Story Fellow
Tom Bullough
Tarddle/Source
Tom Bullough spent nine months following conversations along the River Wye, exploring Welsh identity, local concerns, and hopes. Culminating in a two-hour installation at Hay Castle, the project brought the river’s cultural, environmental, and emotional significance vividly to life.
Story Fellow
Dr Davina Quinlivan
Tea Poems
Dr Davina Quinlivan draws on environmental writing and eco-poetics to explore the Story of SUKI Tea. Using archives and her own heritage, Davina created the Zine series ‘Tea Stories’, a platform connecting culture and community through storytelling, creativity, and the history of tea.
Story Fellow
Helen O'Neill
Story Futures Report
Helen Scarlett O’Neill explores interactive, immersive storytelling using XR technologies in public libraries. Building on her award-winning participatory work, she develops innovative, accessible approaches for mass, multi-perspectival storytelling, creating a practical “storytelling kit” for the people’s metaverse and unlocking new ways for communities to collaborate and engage.
Story Fellow
Dr Josh Weeks
NCACE Report
Dr Josh Weeks’ project invites readers into the living Story of NCACE - showing how Story Skills reveal the networks, care and shared purpose that make expert communities and lasting impact possible. His report moves between archive, reflection and imagination to make visible the human work behind the work, and to help NCACE’s evidence and resources travel further into practice.
Do you have an impact Story that needs telling?
Coordinating a small project that needs funding? Supporting a project but require guidance?
Then please follow this link to read about contacting StoryArcs, and we will see in what ways we can support you.
Join Our Network
If storytelling, positive impact, real-world change, or all three interest you,
then please read about how to receive updates from us and stay at the frontline of all our work.
