On Saturdays during the summer for more than 50 years, New York City´s children have clustered around Hans Christian Andersen´s statue near Conservatory Pond in Central Park to hear his tales, and those of other, told by a dedicated group of storytellers. Many well known performers, including Victor Borge, Eva LaGallienne, and Fanny Hurst, have visited the statue and told their favorite stories. Adults as well as children are continually enchanted by this living memorial to one of the worlds greatest storytellers.

The idea for the statue originated with Baroness Alma Dahlerup, then president of the Danish-American Women´s Association of New York, who for many years had arranged for Andersen´s stories to be told on the radio. Robert Moses, then New York City parks Commissioner, selected the site and the City´s Department of Parks and Recreation has given it active support ever since. Donations by schoolchildren in Denmark and the United States made up a share of the funding for the statue, which was executed by the Danish American sculptor George Lober and unveiled in 1956. Hans Christian Andersen´s well-rubbed knees are ample evidence of the fun children continue to have sitting on his lap.

The statue has become a symbol of the good relations between the United States and Denmark. Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark visited the statue in 1976 during her Bicentennual trip to the U.S., following a tradition established by her father and mother, their majesties King Frederik and Queen Ingrid, who visited in 1956. Her sister, Princess Benedikte, visited in 1965 and 1977, and her son, Crown Prince Frederik, made an unofficial visit in 1990. In 1964 the City of Copenhagen contributed two 19th Century street lamps that were placed on either side of the statue. The New York City Parks Commissioner returned the gift in 1985 with two historic New York City street lamps that now stand at Dantes Plads in Copenhagen.

In 1998, the Storytelling Center was honoured to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Prize from the "Hans Christian Andersen Priskomite" of Odense, Denmark, the place where Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1804. In 1999, the lord Mayor of Odense, visited the Storytelling Center.

The Storytelling Center receives excellent support form New York City´s Department of Parks and Recreation and from the Central Park Conservancy.

In addition to the program in Central Park, the Storytelling Center co-sponsors storytelling at Scandinavia House and puts on programs at the Hans Christian Andersen School in Harlem (P.S. 242) and at Scandinavia House.

IN 2006 THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY WAS CELEBRATED.

COMMITTEE

Elfie von Kantzow Alvin
Anne-Mette Andersen
Vagn Holck Andersen
Frederikke Borge
Ronald Borge
Karen A. Brush
Lynn Carter
Thomas P. Della Torre
Elisabeth Dyssegaard
Scott Gonge
Lillian Hess
Lisa Resling Halpern
Birgit Holm
Ebbe Larsen
Peter Martins
Viggo Mortensen
Harriet Nilsen
Edwin P. Rambusch
C. Nicholas Risom
Christian R. Sonne
Rolf Kristian Stang
Paul Steffensen
Jolyon Fox Stern
Werner Valeur-Jensen
Susse Wold