The American Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) has generously awarded our immediate community three separate grants!
Official Language from ASF’s press release:
New York, NY—The American-Scandinavian Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of ASF’s Scandinavian Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions program. Introduced in 2017, this program helps to nurture the rich Scandinavian folk art traditions in the Upper Midwest (North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) by deepening the skills of master artists, fostering longterm relationships among masters and apprentices, and enhancing the traditions’ visibility through public programs and community projects. The 2023-24 cohort is a group of worthy individuals and organizations whose dedication to traditional Scandinavian arts and skills is an inspiration to us all. We look forward to seeing their projects unfold while we marvel over innovative ways that our grantees from previous years have carried out projects and shared folk-art traditions with their local communities.
Duluth-stämman 2024:
Building on the concept of stämma as a gathering of folk musicians and dancers, the 2024 Duluth-stämman aims to promote Nordic community-driven traditions through jam circles, workshops, youth programs, and dances accompanied to traditional American-Nordic music. The 2024 Duluth-stämman will be held from June 7-8.
Karen Keenan:
An ASF 2018 Folk Arts Fellow, Karen Keenan will begin a project entitled “Reviving, Expanding, and Sustaining Traditional Swedish Hairwork Artistry in the Midwest.” Hairwork as a Scandinavian folk art was practiced by Swedish women as far back as the 1700s and early 1800s in Våmhus, where hair was woven, corded, or made into heirloom jewelry such as brooches, bracelets, necklaces, crowns, or earrings. To advance her expertise in hairwork, Keenan will apprentice with master hairworkers Helen Martis and Erika Borbos-Rindvall and visit hairwork collections at the Nordisk Museet in Sweden. Upon her return, Keenan hopes to continue sharing her craft with local teaching venues as well as the annual Lake Superior 20/20 Studio and Art Tour.
Laurel Sanders & Giizh (Sarah) Agaton Howes:
Laurel Sanders and her daughter Giizh (Sarah) Agaton Howes, a renowned Ojibwe craftswoman, plan to travel to Norway, where they will study bandweaving, not only in terms of employable techniques, but also in terms of its history and place in Ojibwe, Sami, and Nordic cultures. To better contextualize and understand band weaving—a method of weaving narrow strips of fabric to use as decorative jewelry or belts—Sanders and Howes’ trip to Norway will include taking courses at the Rauland Folk Academy in Telemark, meeting with band weavers, and visiting textile museum collections. Upon their return, they will share their knowledge of band weaving with local communities through presentations and exhibits at various venues including the Duluth Nordic Center and Sami Cultural Center of North America.