About Our Projects

The International Storytelling Center is enriching the human experience through the power of storytelling.

Through our work, we are creating new possibilities to animate the human spirit, enhance the imagination, strengthen education, preserve and renew the world's fading cultures, revitalize the soul of healthcare, inspire leadership, and build peace and understanding among peoples in conflict.

The Center is pursuing its work, currently only in the initial development stages, through three core strategies:

Advocacy

The Center is developing and conducting an international advocacy program to inspire and empower people around the world to know and share their stories, renew their storytelling traditions, and use storytelling to enrich their lives and work. Our premier advocacy tools are the National Storytelling Festival and the Teller-in-Residence Program.

Research and Development

The Center and the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress are developing a national and international program to collect, preserve, and disseminate information and materials about the traditions, practice, and application of storytelling.

The repository for this information and materials will be the International Storytelling Collection—located at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Center will provide on-site and online access to the Collection at our facilities in Jonesborough.

For current access to the International Storytelling Collection at the Library of Congress contact the American Folklife Center; folklife@loc.gov; 202-707-5510.

Learning

The Center is developing and conducting a program to teach people around the world how to use storytelling as a tool to enrich their lives, their workplaces, and their communities. At the heart of this program is a series of educational experiences and resources.

Our current Stories for the Soul program—a partnership between International Storytelling Center and Mountain States Foundation—demonstrates how the application of storytelling can enhance a healthcare patient's satisfaction and health, through story methods specifically designed for the healthcare experience.
More information?

The Center is currently engaged in providing opportunities for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to learn how to use storytelling to strengthen JPL's programs in public awareness and formal and informal education.

These opportunities include developing and performing stories of space exploration, conducting professional development through creative use of storytelling techniques, and establishing a research project that seeks to develop innovative strategies to enliven and enhance the teaching of space science.