STORY telling charity Settle Stories is celebrating after being awarded thousands of pounds by Arts Council England.

The charity behind the hugely successful Yorkshire Festival of Story, currently underway and with Booker Prize winner Ben Okri as this year's guest director, will receive £450,000 over the next three years as part of the Arts Council's 2023-26 investment programmes for 'national portfolio' organisations.

Sita Brand, Settle Stories chief executive and artistic director, received the news at an open event of the charity's festival of story, which runs from November 4 to November 27 and features more than 80 free online and in person events.

She said: “I am delighted. It’s fantastic to have a storytelling organisation given such a platform at the heart of the national portfolio and it will allow us the security and time to plan ahead and consider the future direction of Settle Stories.

"We’re keen to grow our organisation so we can provide work opportunities for other creatives, developing our storytelling and mindfulness programme for schools across the country whilst also supporting our local community here in Craven.

"We’re grateful to Arts Council England for helping us to put storytelling on the map.”

By joining the national portfolio, Arts Council England will support Settle Stories with the delivery of the annual Yorkshire Festival of Story, the development of the Stories for Schools programme, the expansion of the online learning platform Storyversity and other applied storytelling projects.

Settle Stories will continue to work collaboratively and in partnership with artists and organisations in Craven and across the UK to bring accessible and affordable creativity and

culture to the community.

Pete Massey, director Yorkshire and Northern Economy and Partnerships for Arts Council

England, said: “Settle Stories does amazing work using the power of storytelling and literature to

create transformative experiences for everyone, particularly those in rural communities, and its

Yorkshire Festival of Story is a fantastic event.

"I’m so pleased that Settle Stories is joining our national portfolio and I look forward to seeing how its work develops and continues to contribute to our Let’s Create strategy over the next few years.”

Skipton MP, Julian Smith, who recently visited Settle Stories, said: “I am really pleased that the Arts Council England have announced that grants totalling £877,728 have been awarded to Settle Stories and Ripon Museum Trust – two great initiatives in the constituency.”

To find out more about events taking place in the Yorkshire Festival of Story, visit: yorkshirefestivalofstory.com.

Skipton Town Hall, which is managed and owned by Craven District Council, had applied to become one of the national portfolio organisations, but was unlucky.

A spokesperson for the town hall said: “Obviously, we are disappointed that the Skipton Town Hall Collective, incorporating Craven Arts, The Folly at Settle and Skipton Camerata, were not successful at this time – however we are heartened by the positive feedback and understand that the programme was hugely oversubscribed and that we were very close.

"As cultural hub for Craven we are also here to support all creative and cultural organisations across the district, as well as running the town hall and Craven Museum – we are therefore delighted to see that Settle Stories were successful and look forward to supporting them in their NPO journey as much as possible.”