Traditional Arts Indiana
What is Traditional Arts Indiana?
Traditional Arts Indiana, (a partnership between the Arts Commission and Indiana University’s Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department), documents, promotes, and presents Indiana’s traditional arts and artisans, with emphasis on those practicing art forms passed down through generations. This research and presentation process makes significant impact in Indiana’s rural communities.
Each year, the Arts Commission and TAI present Traditional Arts Master awards at the Indiana State Fair. TAI’s overarching goal is to share cultural heritage with young Hoosier generations through the arts and community development at the local, state, and national level.
What are traditional arts?
TAI views art as “creativity in everyday life” – from how people cook to how they extract limestone from a hillside; from how they dress to how they decorate their homes and yards. Perhaps the term folklife better describes the scope of artistic practices TAI addresses. Folklife includes artistic expressions as well as traditional knowledge – knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation, master to apprentice, mother to daughter, neighbor to neighbor, parishioner to parishioner.
Image provided by Tradional Arts Indiana.