Festival on Mexican Art, Culture and History

FAIN: GP-10070

Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, IL 60605-2827)
James Fox (Project Director: August 1969 to present)

Festival of Mexican Folk Arts to show contemporary Mexican folk arts, their history and their relation to popular culture. ABSTRACT: Festival of Mexican Folk Arts aimed at explaining contemporary Mexican folk arts, their history and their relation to popular culture, to make Chicagoans aware of the rich Mexican culture in their midst and to draw the Mexican community into wider participation in the cultural life of Chicago. Exhibitions to include contemporary folk arts, indigenous costumes, colonial art, prehispanic art, and culture of the Chicago Mexican community (photo essay) to demonstrate the roots of this culture in Spanish colonial and pre-Columbian past. Concentration on the historical approach through films ("Mexico's History"), lectures (Prehispanic Architecture and its Relation to Modern Mexican Culture) and slide presentation on Mexican culture, history and archeology. Public education aspect of project evident in many educational presentations, along with exhibitions of arts and artifacts, and many special programs for school children. Funds for publicity, exhibitions costs, performance costs, fees for lecturers, dancers, etc.