The Folklife Institute of Central Kansas has provided many outstanding educational activities in the fields of folklife and folk art. The Institute is a research organization that acts as a presentation umbrella for persons interested in traditional arts and culture. Programs are centered around an oral history collection, folk art classes and exhibit preparation. The Institute encourages apprenticeship in the traditional arts. Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts have provided funds for research, slide presentations and exhibition development of several previously unstudied areas of folk art.

OUR PROGRAMS

Successful programs of The Folklife Institute of Central Kansas have included:

* a Folklife in the Schools Seminar for middle school teachers

* presentations on immigrant culture for Bethany College Elderhostels

* the week long Folk Art Intensive Workshop taught by 12 Master Folk Artists

* Swedish Folk Craft Workshops in knife making and wood working

* a traveling exhibition funded by the National Endowment for the Arts

*fieldwork for the Smithsonian Institution's Family Farm section of the National Folklife Festival in Washington D.C.

Ongoing programs of the Folklife Institute of Central Kansas include:

* acquisition of slides, negatives, video and audio tapes, and objects that reflect the folklife of central Kansas

* collecting stories from rural Kansas areas

* documentation and acquisition of the costumes worn at the Svensk Hyllningsfest, a biannual celebration honoring Swedish immigrants

* building a research and resource library on folklife and folk art

* guidance to individuals applying for Kansas Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grants

* week long seminars on Swedish-American culture as it exists in the Midwest

* reprinting books and publishing research conclusions

The Folklife Institute of Central Kansas has hosted visits to Central Kansas for:

Dr. Alan Jabbour, director of the Library of Congress Folklife Institute

Dr. Michael Owen Jones, director of the Department of Mythology and Folklore at the University of California at Los Angeles

Dr. Robert Teske, director of the Cederburg Center at Cederburg Wisconsin

Dr. Barbro Klein, professor of Folklife at the University of Stockholm, Sweden