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Traditional Folklife Exhibit Proposals Due July 5
For the second consecutive year, the Iowa Arts Council is receiving proposals from Iowa public libraries and museums that want to bring Cultural Express to their region.
Cultural Express is a series of 11 live, two-hour programs about traditional Iowa music, food, dance, rituals and crafts told through table-top exhibits, resource kits and live programs. The series explores Danish, American Indian, Lao, Bosnian, Asian-Indian and Vietnamese folklife, as well as Gospel, Blues, Latino, Old Time Anglo-Scots-Irish, and Czech and German Polka music. Polka and Vietnamese Tet are new to the series this year.
“This program offers Iowans an opportunity to learn more about the
cultures that define and shape the history of our state,” said Anita
Walker, director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. “One
aspect of the Iowa Arts Council’s mission is to create and promote
a strong cultural arts environment in Iowa. 
We’re
very pleased to make the Cultural Express available to Iowa’s public
libraries and museums.”
Originally funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America: Access to Arts Grant, Cultural Express was created in collaboration with traditional artists and communities in Iowa to bring diverse traditional arts to libraries and museums throughout the state.
Iowa libraries and museums are eligible to apply for up to $8,000 to help
offset the costs of this traveling program. Applications must be received
by 4:30 p.m. on July 5, 2006 at the Iowa Arts Council offices in the State
Historical Building, 600 E. Locust Street in Des Moines. More information
is available by contacting Riki Saltzman at 515-242-6195 or riki.saltzman@iowa.gov,
or by visiting www.iowaartscouncil.org/funding/cultural-express/index.shtml.
