Blog
Dancing Lotus Blossoms – From India to Indiana
The first week of Lotus Blossoms was a beautiful whirlwind of Indian folk traditions with our new friends, Kalapriya. By the time the group headed back to their home base in Chicago, Pranita Jain, Anu Bhatt, and Rouchana Igoudina had traveled four counties and...
Lotus Endowment News
The Lotus-Fitzgerald Endowment balance has doubled in just two years, now totaling nearly $400,000. We owe special thanks to the year-end donors who chose to add a little more to their annual gift to help us increase the endowment, and we hope our generous donors and...
Volunteers of Lotus: 2013 Edition
We can't close out a year without saluting our volunteers. Their creativity, generosity, ingenuity, and (sometimes) stamina are essential to the success of every Lotus program. Lotus volunteers know how to solve problems, have fun, and be ambassadors for Bloomington...
Art of Lotus 2013: The Year in Review
The vibrant Lotus palette is the work of many hands. “Collaborating with so many dynamic people in our community to create the art of Lotus – that’s one of the joys of our work,” says Outreach Director Loraine Martin. “It’s young people, retirees, professional...
When Lotus Comes to Lunch
During Lotus Blossoms outreach in the spring, and even on the Festival weekend, we try to arrange occasions where our visiting artists meet young people in the community. {Pictured above: members of the Nigerian band Etran Finatawa with Indiana University Wells...
Outreach Partner Profile: T. C. Steele State Historic Site
“When people ask about the work of Lotus, we remind them that a good portion of what we do is made possible through powerful collaborations across the spectrum of our community. Teaming up with other organizations allows us to expand our reach to audiences and...
Endowment Spotlight: Paul Sturm
The first twenty years have been good to Lotus -- and we’re growing our endowment, to ensure that the Festival will be around for another 20 years. Donors like Paul Sturm are helping us realize that vision. “The best way I can feel fulfilled in my relationship with...
IU Ukrainian Club Meets DakhaBrakha
Members of Indiana University’s Ukrainian Club connected with the avant-garde ensemble DakhaBrakha on Lotus weekend, and Ethnomusicology grad student Shaun Williams had a chance to talk to the band about their music, their creative process, and their impressions of...
Twenty Years of Lotus and IU
Indiana University's Mathers Museum of World Cultures was the very first Lotus venue: On a cool October afternoon in 1994, the festival began on the museum's front porch, with a set of folk music by Andrew Lazaro, a Puerto Rican doctoral student at the IU School of...