An Iowa Arts & Humanities Initiative
Year of the Arts & Humanities project
Fall 2004
- Co-directors
- Judy Polumbaum (professor, Journalism and Mass Communication)
Steve Thunder-McGuire (associate professor, Art Education)
Doug Allaire (eduction media coordinator, College of Education)
This project brings together individuals on campus and in the immediate community who are "creative" in an easily identifiable sense, in that their livelihood incorporates a central focus on the arts and/or humanities. The intent is to make creative people's explanations and reflections about their own work accessible in a variety of formats, including written profiles, videotaped interviews, and finally, storytelling performance. We have invited seven individuals to participate in this pilot effort incorporating methods from journalism, oral history and storytelling. Profiles, highlights from videotaped interviews, links to participants' works and other resources will be added to this website during the coming months.
The project culminated in a special storytelling event on Friday, October 15th, 8 p.m., at Prairie Lights Bookstore, 15 South Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City, em-ceed by storytellers Steve Thunder-McGuire and Judy Polumbaum, and featuring calligrapher Glen Epstein, Walt Whitman scholar Ed Folsom, pianist Réne Lecuona, dancer and choreographer Alan Sener, fiction writer Mary Helen Stefaniak and singer-songwriter Dave Zollo. The event was broadcast on the WSUI-AM 910 public radio program "Live from Prairie Lights," hosted by Julie Englander.