Nebraska StoryArts began as a production activity of storytellers in Omaha, NE. Their first festival in 1987 served 50 - 60 people. That single activity into storytelling inspired the growth that led to Nebraska StoryArts, now serving over 8000 people annually in production events, and approximately 10,000 through a weekly radio show. In the past seven years, Nebraska StoryArts has formed a corporate board of directors, reincorporated as a separate entity from the founding organization, and now produces, or acts as consultant to, a variety of storytelling activities statewide. Getting Started Four storytelling librarians, Sheila Schumacher, Mary Heise, Jayne Palmer and Judy Vitters, formed in 1986, OOPS (the Omaha Organization for the Purpose of Storytelling), incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit. OOPS meets the third Thursday of every month at the Harry Abrahams Library in Omaha. In June of 1987, OOPS produced the first Nebraska Storytelling Festival at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. The event was attended by approximately 50 people, who each paid $25 for workshops, tellings and supper featuring Nebraska tellers. From the very first year, the organization had the support of the Nebraska Library Commission, which granted recertification credits for librarians attending - a key element in the Festival's maturity. In 1990, the Festival moved to donated space at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In 1991, Nancy Duncan taught a storytelling course at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and in 1994 taught the same course at College of Saint Mary, leading into the Festival. In the fourth year, the Festival added a Friday night to the full day of Saturday, which enabled a broader audience to attend. This was another key step in creating growth and allowing expansion. In 1994, the Festival moved to the College of Saint Mary, where it continues to rent space. In 2001, the Nebraska Storytelling Festival expanded to its current format: Thursday night a kickoff reception and supper - showcasing the Festival tellers, continuing Friday morning, including six rounds of workshops (four on Friday and two on Saturday morning) as well as eight public telling events. The Festival concludes on Sunday afternoon with a Stories for the Sprit theme. Incorporation In 1995, the Festival incorporated as a separate non-profit organization, providing year-round supervision, a corporate board of directors, and continuity of production. The new organization was named the Storytelling Festival of Nebraska. Its main production, scheduled for the last weekend in June in Omaha, is the Nebraska Storytelling Festival. The organization also assists as artistic consultant to the Kearney Committee's (incorporated under the Kearney Area Foundation) production of the Kearney Storytelling Festival, held annually in January. In 2001, the name was changed to Nebraska StoryArts to reflect year-round programming. Other productions include a weekly radio show, an intensive training and coaching workshop, various selected activities in Lincoln, a series of storytelling events at UNO, a Storytelling Camp for grades 4 - 9 leading into the June Festival, and partnering with Joslyn Art Museum to produce an annual Liar's Contest as part of Arts on the Green. In the spring of 2001, the organization introduced outreach programming in an activity named StoryConnect, placing storytellers who represent the region's minority communities in schools and community centers. Two kinds of academic and library recertification credit are offered at the June Festival. The link has allowed us to share facilities with a growing college, an academic institution right in the center of Omaha, to have free access to parking and access to dorms at a reasonable rate. In 2001, the Festival was granted recertification credit by the Nebraska Association for Marriage and Family Therapy for those counselors and therapists attending the Festival. Significant actions that made this possible: We developed personal relationships with a few national tellers: Gay Ducey, Kathryn Windham, and Steve Sanfield - all fine tellers and Festival promoters whom we admired and trusted. They gave us good advice. We spent some money on professional marketing materials, cadged design work from anyone who would assist us, made the communication tools of the Festival more professional to gain more confidence from our targeted audiences. We personally invited the staffs of funding organizations to attend the June Festival and all other telling events. We educated the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Arts Council panels to the inherent value of all story in the Arts & Humanities. We offered classes in storytelling across Iowa and Nebraska to teachers, lawyers, and individuals and exposed them to the power of story. We developed a computer data base of addresses, national and regional, which has been sorted into target lists and maintained at zip + 4 with a service bureau. We searched out and featured at the Festival and all telling events natural born or trained tellers in other disciplines. e.g. therapists, kids, rabbis, cantors, professors, priests, lawyers, senators, nurses, teachers. These "natural" tellers carry story within them in their own communities but who had never thought of attending a storytelling festival. We persuaded a state senator, David Landis, a fine teller and spirited lover of story, to be the first President of our new Board of Directors. Progressed was slow and incremental. Key to making the corporate transition were Mary Heise, Sheila Schumacher, and Jayne Palmer, three tellers who were the founders of the original OOPS. They all elected to serve on the new Board of Directors with unlimited terms and with the right to assign some one of their own election to take their places when and if they decided not to serve the board. Sheila serves as current president. We did all of this without a paid staff - volunteers working together to make story a possibility in Nebraska. Purpose & Collaborations During the restructuring, an original purpose was conceived, i.e., not limiting ourselves to one annual storytelling event in Omaha, but creating storytelling opportunities for all Nebraska. Article III-A of the by-laws reads: "The mission of Nebraska StoryArts is to preserve, perpetuate, and celebrate storytelling of all cultures and to nurture, sustain, and develop the storytelling community of tellers and listeners." Strong relationships have been developed with other Nebraska agencies interested in storytelling events, particularly the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Arts Are Basic program (aesthetic education), Creighton University's Office of Multicultural Affairs & continuing education program, churches and worship centers that sponsor during the Nebraska Storytelling Festival. Collaborations have also been established with: the International Reading Association, KIOS-FM, The Nebraska Library Commission, Omaha Public Library, The Omaha Children's Museum, the University of Nebraska-Omaha's Colleges of Education and Fine Arts, Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha), Esperanza - a group of Latina women meeting under the auspices of Catholic Social Services, Durham Western Heritage Museum (Omaha), Girl and Boy Scouts, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and the Museum of Nebraska Art (Kearney). Partners in StoryConnect are Omaha Public Schools, the AIM Project at Omaha's Central High School, the Nebraska Conference for Community and Justice, Countryside Community Church, and youth leadership groups in Omaha, including that of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce. We have served as artistic consultant to the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice and to the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival in McCook. These coalitions and storytelling activities are all part of Nebraska StoryArt's development and growth. These collaborations emphasize the goal of educating the general public to create a receptive audience. Growing Our Audience At all events, efforts are made to have a healthy ethnic "mix" in to make storytelling accessible to all members of our community and to educate ourselves about other cultures, the stories of other peoples. At the Nebraska Storytelling Festival, we are committed to 4 - 6 tellers of national prominence mingled with regional tellers of excellence representing a variety of telling styles: presentational/performance. Local novice tellers have opportunities to showcase at the Festival. Students in the Storytelling Camp perform at the Friday luncheon and a Friday afternoon workshop. Members of OOPS perform at the Friday night supper. A varied assortment of kids, moms, dads, and grandparents entertain with stories at the Saturday luncheon. The Need for a Story There is a need for story in all of us; we recognize story as the essence of memory and comprehension - the most effective way to think about anything. We also experience the joy of making community by celebrating it with story; I recognize myself in you through your story - as I delight in our differences. A Lakota Elder said that we tell stories to help us to become human beings. When asked "Aren't we human beings already?" his reply was, "Not all of us make it." Be a part of the story - join us at a Nebraska StoryArts event.