Our Aims
In Performance we are committed to increasing access to the oral tradition by establishing artistic excellence as a benchmark, raising the profile of neglected arts, and satisfying the public’s increasing hunger for live performance.
We are dedicated to improving standards of delivery amongst poets and storytellers and to legitimizing storytelling as an art-form in its own right. In Public Speaking we seek to improve public discourse by promoting eloquence, civility and authentic delivery.
In Education we are determined to establish oracy as an essential requirement and precursor to literacy; to ensure that all children in the UK receive a solid education in public speaking; and to balance the current gender divide in educational attainment by furthering oracy in boys.
In Adult and Executive Education we work with individuals, groups, employers, employees, and the unemployed, leaders and followers to improve communications, in all sectors, to the betterment of society as a whole.
In Outreach we are dedicated to the proposition that story, metaphor and fair speech are keys to individual well-being and social cohesion. In community work we seek, through the cultivation of oral histories, debating, and community conversations, to improve the quality of life for all including the disadvantaged and unheard.
In Research and Archival work we seek to preserve and celebrate all that is good in the oral tradition, to prevent the loss of valuable material and knowledge, and to record great performances and individual stories for posterity