ON any given day, Northbridge’s Centre for Stories is a place where people walk through the door carrying memories, grief, humour and hope — and leave knowing they have been heard.
As the Boorloo-based storytelling organisation prepares to mark its tenth year, it has announced a leadership change, with CEO Caroline Wood stepping down after a decade guiding the centre’s development, and creative director Robert Wood adding the top job to his portfolio. Cheryl Centen will also join the executive team as general manager.
The transition marks the end of a formative chapter for the Boorloo-based organisation, which has grown into a nationally recognised hub for writing and oral storytelling under Ms Wood’s leadership.
• The Carevale crew rehearsing their scripts for a weekend of anarchy. Photo by #milestweediephotography
“What I am most proud of is the feeling people describe when they walk through our doors,” Ms Wood said.
“We have created a welcoming and inclusive space where people feel safe to share their stories and be heard.
“That sense of belonging is at the heart of everything we do.”
Founded by John and Caroline Wood, the centre has spent the past decade building programs that support writers and storytellers “at every stage of their journey”, with a strong emphasis on cultural and social diversity. Participants from its programs have gone on to be published, awarded, perform on major stages and contribute to national and international conversations.
Dr Wood, who joined the organisation in 2018 after working in higher education, said the challenge of the next chapter was to protect the centre’s culture while lifting its artistic reach.
“Having been so close to it for eight years now, I think one of the things that we do really well is nourish community, and we are able to be a place that is not only safe but inclusive and joyful and supportive and empowering,” he said.
“We want to continue doing that, while we also continue to elevate the craft and quality of our artistic offering.”
He said the organisation would retain its core programs while remaining responsive to community needs.
“On the one hand, we have to retain the culture,” he said.
“We have to retain that focus on empowerment and inclusion, which is true to the original mission of the organisation, while we continue to improve our craft and our quality and also to reach new audiences and broaden our appeal.”
Reaching those audiences, Dr Wood said, would begin with strengthening ties to the centre’s existing community of writers, storytellers and readers.
“We’ve been really good at supporting writers and storytellers, and our audience is often made up of people who are participants and performers and artists themselves,” he said.
Partnerships would play a key role, including collaborations with organisations such as Fremantle Press, Fremantle Biennale and international bodies like the Singapore Book Council Writers Festival.
“We’re going to do that through face to face channels as well as digital channels,” he said, including expanding the centre’s online presence.
In an era of political polarisation and social unease, Dr Wood said the Centre deliberately focused on everyday experience.
“We are an organisation that focuses on day to day life,” he said.
“We are locally grounded. We care about stories that might otherwise appear small or insignificant.”
He described the act of sharing stories in person as “a tonic to the kind of big structural changes that are taking place out there that inevitably affect us as well”.
“I think stories are fundamental to who we are,” he said, pointing to a growing hunger for connection as people retreat from traditional forms of civic engagement.
“They’re hungering for collaboration. They’re hungering for understanding and empowerment.”
While the centre has long focused on culturally and linguistically diverse communities, Dr Wood said its reach would continue to broaden.
“We’re interested in the intersectionalities of those experiences,” he said, including people facing “two-fold or three-fold barriers to acceptance and empowerment”, as well as audiences in outer suburbs and across generations.
Feedback from participants, he said, consistently highlighted increased confidence, wellbeing and connection.
“There’s not that much distance between performers and artists and storytellers and audience members,” he said.
“So I like that egalitarianism between artists and audiences.”
Over 10 years, the organisation has amassed a substantial archive of stories in print and online. “We’ve done more than 12 books,” Dr Wood said, alongside hundreds of stories hosted digitally. He hopes the website will increasingly encourage readers “to get lost in rabbit warrens and to be readers and connoisseurs of the stories we’ve already collected”.
Looking ahead, the centre will continue major initiatives including the Lotterywest-funded First Stories project led by a Noongar team, its Backstories festival in suburban backyards, and the Portside Review human rights essay prize.
Ms Centen said her focus as general manager would be on strengthening the organisation behind the scenes.
“With strong foundations in place, I am confident that we, as an organisation, will continue to operate with integrity, intention, and sustainability, allowing our people, partnerships and programs to thrive.”
by STEVE GRANT