NATIVE ARTS FESTIVAL BEGINS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 1995

Fairbanks, Alaska - As many as 3,500 visitors are expected on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus Feb. 22 - 24 for the Festival of Native Arts, now in its 23rd year of celebrating the artistic accomplishments of Alaska Native people from around the state and Circumpolar North.

The festival, which takes place in the Regents’ Great Hall on the UAF main campus from 6 p.m. to midnight, gives Natives of different cultural backgrounds a better understanding of each other, and provides a forum for contemporary Native artisans.

More than 300 performers and artists from Anaktuvuk Pass, Galena, Arctic Village, Barrow, Juneau, Haines, Minto, Savoonga and other areas of the state are scheduled to participate, representing Athabascan, Tlingit, Aleut and Eskimo people of the Circumpolar North. Also scheduled are performers from Yakutsk, Russia and the Ojibwe Reservation in Minnesota.

Each group will share Native dancing, singing, storytelling and traditional arts and crafts. Performances will be held throughout the three evenings of the festival in the Great Hall as well as in Wood Center on Thursday. Feb. 22,

3 - 5 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 23, 1 - 3 p.m.; and Saturday, Feb. 24, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. All events are free and open to the public. Native arts and crafts will be for sale.

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Note to editors: Honors list also available via e-mail. To receive, contact Heather Millar at University Relations at (907) 474-7581, or electronically at fynews@aurora.alaska.edu.

CONTACT: Karlin Itchoak, Festival of Native Arts, (907) 474-6889.

DPD/2-15-96/96-53