Program/Grant: Midwest Culture Bearers Award

The Midwest Culture Bearers Award is an award celebrating and supporting the work of Midwest culture bearers and folk arts practitioners.

Taking a holistic approach that includes responsibly harvesting natural materials, Red Eagle teaches the traditional art of bow-making from wood, plants, hides, bone, and more.

Lee combines tradition, identity, and experimentation to bring the art of hanji to the Midwest and beyond.

Jetter works broadly across cultural genres to continue her family’s long legacy of promoting Black history and culture in a town where it’s otherwise dwindling.

Based in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, Buche shares her skills with students seeking new experiences and ancient wisdom.

Pieper Bloomquist breathes new life into the traditions of dalmålning and bonadsmålning, mixing contemporary stories with historic Swedish iconography.

The Bloomington-based director of IU’s African American Dance Company continues a long lineage of dance, community, and exploration.

Pachas’s traditional dances pass down indigenous values through stories about bridge building, Mother Earth, and even Lake Michigan.

The Ann Arbor-based artist and scholar builds bridges between Filipino diasporic and indigenous communities through music.