Telling stories is a fundamental aspect of all human societies, but how have different cultures taken on communicating narratives? And what happens when the ways stories are told change?

This special exhibition, developed by Penn student curators Braden Cordivari, Fiona Jensen-Hitch, and Linda Lin for Penn’s Year of Innovation, explores how cultures have innovated storytelling.

Fifteen objects—including a Javanese Shadow puppet, a Native American story knife from Alaska, and a Neoclassical period cameo—drawn from the Penn Museum’s international collections, help to tell the tale.