Apply Now for the 2025 Midwest Culture Bearers Award

Arts Midwest is now accepting applications for the 2025 Midwest Culture Bearers Award, which celebrates and supports the work of Midwest culture bearers and folk arts practitioners. 

Culture bearers and folk arts practitioners are deeply rooted in the practice and preservation of cultural traditions through craft, storytelling, dance, performance, visual arts, language preservation, foodways, and more. Cultural identities may include geographic communities, occupational groups, or family traditions.  

Folk arts and culture bearer practices are often connected to cultural communities and prioritize sharing knowledge with the next generation. Some of the titles they may use are culture bearer, folk artist, taproot artist, traditional artist, elder artist, and ancestral knowledge bearer. 

• WHAT: The 2025 Midwest Culture Bearers Award is a $5,000 unrestricted, non-matching award. It honors and amplifies the work of nine Midwestern culture bearers each year. 
• WHO: If you have a folk arts or traditional cultural practice that you have engaged in for at least 10 years and prioritizes the next generation of practitioners, you may apply.
• WHEN: Applications close at 11:59 pm CST on July 21, 2025. Awards will be made in September–October 2025.
• WHERE: You must live in the Arts Midwest region. This includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and the Native Nations that share this geography.