International Storytelling Center

The International Storytelling Center serves as the world’s premier institution dedicated to improving lives and work through the power of storytelling. The center offers exhibits about storytelling and the center’s work and live daily storytelling.

The center is a learning laboratory where the power of storytelling is examined and studied. Also, through a program of learning, the center teaches people around the world to use storytelling to produce positive change in their lives, their workplaces and their communities.

The center rests in Jonesborough, the only facility anywhere in the world devoted exclusively to storytelling, and also on the campus includes a 200-year-old country inn, an educational building and a three-acre park. The Mary B. Martin Storytelling Hall provides visitors with experiences in storytelling, including performances through the popular Storytelling Live!, a 26-week teller-in-residence program.

In 1973 Jonesborough residents rolled an old wagon into Courthouse Square to share stories. The event, the highly acclaimed National Storytelling Festival, ignited a revival of storytelling that has swept the nation and the globe. The annual festival, now celebrating more than 30 years, showcases stories, storytellers and storytelling traditions.

The center works to advocate the use of storytelling throughout the world. 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. 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.

HelloMetro Tip: A welcome and information area, a retail shop filled with storytelling books, recordings and gifts await visitors to finish the storytelling experience.

- by Leah M. Caudle , Nashville Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Leah M. Caudle

Leah Caudle is a professional storyteller with experience in covering local, community and feature stories. While at newspapers such as The Tennessean in Nashville and The Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky., Caudle also has experience in shooting and editing videos and photos to accompany stories. The Western Kentucky University graduate received degrees in print journalism and Spanish in 2007 and also has expertise in the areas of public relations, copy editing and proofreading.