UMaine to Receive $25,000 Grant for Traveling Maine Fiber Folk Arts Exhibit
The University of Maine has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a traveling exhibit on fiber folk arts in Maine.
The project, which is led by Maine Folklife Center Director Pauleena MacDougall, will receive $25,000 from the NEA.
Maine Fiber Folk Arts will consist of four free-standing panels with photographs and text describing a traditional fiber art from the state. The content will come from fieldwork and the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. The panels will travel around the state through the interlibrary loan system.
“The exhibit will give the public an opportunity to learn about the state’s traditions and to interact with local people who practice those arts,” MacDougall says.
Accompanying the panels will be an online handbook that will give suggestions for putting together a public event relating to the panels and a list of fiber folk artists from around the state. The panels also will be accompanied by an audio CD, which will provide information about the exhibit to seeing-impaired members of the public.
Maine Folklife Center staff plan to visit a few libraries around the state to conduct public events to promote the exhibit when it arrives. The events likely will include a hands-on workshop and panel discussion with fiber artists from the library’s region.
NEA funds will be used to support a graduate student who will assist in conducting research and writing the narrative for the panels.
Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the NEA promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.
UMaine’s grant is among 1,023 NEA awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in the second major grant announcement of the fiscal year.
More information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement is online.