Awards given to master artists

Harold Klosterkemper, a fiddle player from Decatur County, Indiana and Debra Bolaños, a ballet folklórico dancer and instructor in East Chicago, Indiana were honored for their lifetime achievement as artists. These master traditional artists were awarded inaugural Indiana Heritage Fellowships in recognition of their outstanding contributions to their artistic traditions and to their Hoosier communities.

     “Harold Klosterkemper has inspired generations of Indiana fiddlers. For decades he has been a regular at area fiddle contests and gatherings,” expressed Director of Traditional Arts Indiana Jon Kay. “You can often find him playing with and encouraging musicians a fraction of his age.” 

    TAI looks for artists whose art connects them to a community. “After years of excelling as a traditional dancer, first in Indiana and later in Mexico, Debra Bolaños became a ballet folklórico teacher in East Chicago, and has taught hundreds of students in Northern Indiana traditional, regional dances from throughout Mexico.”

About

These awards are given by Traditional Arts Indiana, a program of the Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University. TAI is a partnership between Indiana University and the Indiana Arts Commission, and the state’s official traditional arts support and development program.

     The Indiana Heritage Fellowships are modeled after the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowships, and follow the NEA’s definition of folk and traditional arts: “The folk and traditional arts, which include crafts, dance, music, oral traditions, visual arts, and others, are those that are learned as part of the cultural life of a community whose members share a common ethnic heritage, cultural mores, language, religion, occupation, or geographic region.” Also, the awards reflect the IU’s ongoing legacy of documenting and preserving Indiana’s cultural traditions.