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Oxford is to get a story museum in time for its bid to become Unesco’s World Book Capital in 2014. The museum, which has existed http://www.storymuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">online for the past four years, has benefited from a donation of £2.5m from a major private benefactor. The museum is to be sited in Rochester House on Pembroke Street in the city.
The Story Museum, whose patrons are children's authors Philip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson, will be "a world centre for story and storytelling. Its vision is to create a story-rich society, in which children enjoy sharing and learning through stories and storytelling in many forms."
A major public campaign will be launched later in 2010 to continue raising the £11m needed to transform the building, which aims to attract up to 100,000 visitors a year.
Story Museum director Kim Pickin said: "Dreams do come true: we are absolutely delighted to have a real home at last. Rochester House has its roots in the Victorian era, when Oxford began producing children’s stories that are known and loved across the world. Lewis Carroll himself would have known the building."
Philip Pullman said: "The Story Museum will be a wonderful gift from Oxford, where so many stories have begun, to the whole world."