Traditional Arts Indiana

[virtanenhj]

Hei- hei! My name is Hilary Joy Virtanen and I am a graduate student of Folklore and Finnish Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. I am working this summer for the Traditional Arts Indiana Program which serves to connect ethnic tradition bearers in the state of Indiana to the greater community through a variety of outreach projects. It is my job this summer to try to find some Finnish Americans in Indiana who practice any number of traditional arts including cookery, crafting, dancing, music, storytelling, joking, rug weaving, traditional sauna maintenance....there are numerous other examples. If you would like more information on TAI, please visit www.indiana.edu/~tradarts/ If you would like more information on my own credentials and interests, please visit http://hometown.aol.com/virtanenhj/myhomepage/index.html
If you know anyone in Indiana who may have Finnish traditions to share, please contact me at virtanenhj@aol.com or call me at 812-339-4402. Let's get our ethnic community known in Indiana! Thank you very much,
Hilary Joy Virtanen

[Tero]

Not aware of major Finnish communities in your area. The nearest ones are in NE Ohio, east of Cleveland.

[virtanenhj]

Thank you for the reply, Tero! It is funny that Indiana University is one of the only places in the USA that offers graduate studies in Finnish language and culture, but has no Finnish community to speak of... I guess that's why it's my job to find the few Finns in Indiana. If my ancestors could make potatoes come out of rocks in Upper Michigan, I can sprout a couple of proud Finns out of the corn fields down here. :) I have actually found a few, though, who are perfect for my project. Hopefully when it comes time to write my doctoral dissertation, I'll have enough $ to do it in Michigan, Minnesota or Oregon!


Thanks, Hilary

[Tero]

Good luck. Look up SASS, society for advancement of scand. studies. May find some contacts there.

[virtanenhj]

I've emailed the whole lot of them at SASS- no replies back yet, but it's summer so I understand... hopefully I'll get some quality time with the people I've got.
This has been a nice opportunity to let people from Tampere to British Columbia know about me and my studies, Indiana University and a bunch of other stuff, so I couldn't really call any of the leads and emailings, etc. dead ends, just future opportunities and connections, I hope!

Thanks again,
Hilary:allright:

-- Not a 12 year old, just finally in possession of a computer that has the technology to support smilie graphics. I'll get over it in a week.