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Huajatolla Heritage Festival to receive $20K grant to honor Hispanic and Native cultures

LA VETA — The Huajatolla Heritage Festival (HHF) project has been selected for an Arts in Society award, and will receive funding in the amount of $20,000. Arts in Society grantees will be formally announced on Thursday, April 19 at RedLine’s EPIC Gala. A representative from the Huajatolla Heritage project will be invited to attend this event to be recognized for their exciting work in the community.

As HHF founder Sandy Dolak told the WJ last summer, the festival is a two-day event, held in August to honor Hispanic and Native American cultures through art, education and presentation. Artists, educators and performers showcase the rich heritage of southern Colorado. It is held in La Veta, the beautiful culturally rich heart of the Cuchara Valley. The overarching importance is to not only increase societal awareness of the contributions of the first inhabitants of our area, but also to foster a greater sense of admiration and pride for the Native American and Hispanic cultures in today’s society.

Dolak says, “The invisibility of the immense contributions of the Native American and Hispanic cultures in Huerfano County begs to be addressed. The long term goal is for the Heritage Festival to continue for many years; eventually becoming a self-sustaining entity, as are Art in the Park and Oktoberfest, which just celebrated 30 years, and the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival, which is entering its 13th year.

“The greater vision is to develop Huerfano County into an internationally recognized cultural center.”

The 2018 HHF will be on August 4 through 5. For more information, go to www.huajatollaheritagefoundation.org.

 

About Arts in Society:

In August 2016, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, Hemera Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries, and RedLine Contemporary Art Center joined forces to launch a new collaborative grantmaking program: Arts in Society. Hemera Foundation, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and Colorado Creative Industries fund the initiative, which is administered by RedLine. This exciting new program has an expressed mission to foster cross-sector work through the arts. Through this partnership, we seek to build capacity for social practice projects that implement artistic excellence to engage social issues in communities across Colorado.

Grants are determined by a selection panel, and seek projects that best illustrate artistic excellence, broaden the understanding of the role arts play in society, demonstrate cross-sector work, exhibit cultural relevancy, foster community engagement, and present opportunities for shared learning.

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