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Cultural Express Goes on Tour!
The Iowa Arts Council’s “Cultural Express: Traditional Arts on Tour” programs will soon be available to all Iowa libraries and museum on a first-come, first-served basis.
Cultural
Express is an opportunity for Iowa communities to experience traditional music,
foods, dance, rituals and crafts from a variety of groups living in Iowa. Programs
include Danish, Meskwaki, Lao, and Asian Indian folklife, as well as Gospel, Blues,
Latino, and Old Time Anglo-Scots-Irish traditional music.
“Cultural
Express provides multi-faceted cultural programming for public libraries and museums
to promote understanding of Iowa’s diverse folklife,” said Riki Saltzman,
program coordinator. “Each program is the result of years of collaboration
and planning with a variety of traditional artists and their communities. Audiences
across the state will have the opportunity to experience firsthand Danish needlework,
Meskwaki drumming, Gospel singing, Bosnian lace making, and more, right in their
own communities.”
Iowa
libraries and museums are eligible to apply for up to $1,500 in Iowa Arts Council
funds to help offset the costs of this traveling program. Costs vary per program,
and a dollar-for-dollar cash match will be required. The Iowa Arts Council web
site will soon be providing booking information for programs available after June
2005.
Libraries and museums that book a program will each receive a “kit” that, in addition to the 2-hour live presentation, includes a traveling tabletop exhibit, resource lists, and activities for pre-program presentations and discussions.
This program is funded in part by a Challenge America: Access to the Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
“National Endowment for the Arts grants are critical to the Iowa Arts Council’s mission of leadership in the arts, particularly in the folk and traditional arts,” Saltzman said.
To find out more about Cultural Express: Traditional Arts on Tour, contact
Riki Saltzman at Riki.Saltzman@iowa.gov
or 515.242.6195.
