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 Heritage Arts Center..............Our Vision By forming a Heritage Arts Center we seek to create a place where people of all ages may gather to enjoy and expand their understanding of our rich cultural heritage. It will offer an opportunity to explore the past and present of the Eastern Plains and learn skills and traditions which can then be preserved and handed on to future generations. Through interactive and hands-on experiences, classes and workshops, Folk Arts common to our area will be promoted. Those with knowledge of these traditional skills and crafts are encouraged to share their expertise with others. Looms, spinning wheels, quilting frames, and supplies for tatting, beading, knitting, woodcarving and other traditional arts will be part of our interactive displays.
We also seek to preserve historic samples of folk arts and crafts which will be displayed in our gallery along with juried
art from local artists. Our interest in historic preservation extends to encouraging the preservation of local historic structures,
to documenting local family histories, to the conservation of antique and vintage fabrics. We foresee murals depicting early
settlers and pioneers surrounding our working areas, bringing their stories to life. Sharing stories and history will be encouraged
and become an integral part of all the activities.
We will offer visits to a local demonstration farm, providing the opportunity to enjoy encounters with heritage breed
livestock, and learn about heirloom variety plants. Along with daily farm chores and egg gathering, visitors will see demonstrations
on how wool from sheep is sheared, carded, spun, dyed and woven into beautiful fabric.
Various forms of Living Arts will be promoted through hands-on experience, including those crafts essential to the daily lives of our ancestors such as the production, preparation and preservation of food, pioneer building techniques (such as sod and adobe), and transportation common to the time of plains settlement. Period costume, toys and games will be available and encouraged for all ages. Home-style drama, neighborhood socials and literary clubs reminiscent of earlier days can once again be enjoyable forms of entertainment as these traditions are resurrected. A comfortable and inviting research/resource library will be important to the Arts Center in providing public access
to books on traditional arts, crafts and the many skills we hope to promote.
The Prairie Heritage Arts Center will be a
place where learning and fun combine to celebrate, perpetuate and preserve our cultural heritage, making the past "a
present" to the future.
"The past, the present and the future are
really one: they are today."
Harriet Beecher Stowe |
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Prairie Heritage Arts Association
Enlightening... Encouraging... Enriching... Enduring |