Arts Midwest Announces Winners of the 2025 Midwest Culture Bearers Award

Arts Midwest is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 Midwest Culture Bearers Award. This annual award celebrates Midwestern folk artists and cultural practitioners who keep traditions alive through craft, poetry, dance, visual arts, and more. This year, more than 365 culture bearers shared their work and stories with us.

Today, we recognize nine extraordinary practitioners who are preserving traditions and passing them on to the next generation.

John Medwedeff (Murphysboro, Illinois)
Calvin Small (Gary, Indiana)
Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena (Grinnell, Iowa)
Jozefa Rogocki (Lansing, Michigan)
Judith Kjenstad (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Roxanne C. Henry Laducer (Rolette, North Dakota)
Ryan K. Johnson (Columbus, Ohio)
Ken Cook (Martin, South Dakota)
Gabriela Jiménez Marván (Viroqua, Wisconsin)

John Medwedeff (Illinois)

"I have been a full-time studio artist creating monumental sculptures and site-specific architectural ironwork, furniture, and small objects since 1988. My work is represented in numerous public, private, and corporate collections, including the Illinois State Museum, SAS Inc., The Metal Museum, John Deere, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

At the age of 9, I learned metal casting techniques in my father's dental office and started taking art classes with Nashville artist Chris Tibbott, who encouraged me to create sculptures out of wire, wood, and ceramics. At 14, I acquired my first anvil. At 19, I took a blacksmithing course from James Wallace, the founding director of the Metal Museum in Memphis, and started a three-year blacksmithing apprenticeship with him the next year. I earned BFA and MFA degrees in metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Since establishing my studio, in conjunction with my commission work, I have also published articles in trade journals, taught visiting artist workshops, and presented at conferences, craft schools, art schools, and universities while nurturing and training studio assistants in my shop.

As a member of the Metal Museum Board of Trustees and a full-time studio artist and educator, I am engaged in the development of deeper relationships between the public, art, and artists."

Calvin Small (Indiana)

"I am a lifelong artistic, freestyle, and JB skater. This style of skating mirrors the fancy onstage footwork of James Brown (JB), whose famous song 'Say it Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud' still means so much to Black communities.

Although I began roller skating in Gary, Indiana in 1967, Black skaters were excluded from roller rinks until 1969. With the opening of Black-owned Twin City Roller Rink in East Chicago, Indiana, my community was able to congregate and build new traditions.

As a competitive roller-skating athlete, I placed first in the Coca-Cola Skate Contest from 1976 to 1979 and won the 1979 Nationwide Skate Contest with the Gary Steel City Steppers.

I was also one of the co-originators of JB roller skating in 1971. JB skating has evolved to include new steps, skaters of diverse backgrounds, and a growing global community.

Although we have earned multiple honors, including a Midwest Emmy Awards nomination, my skate crew Glide8orz most strongly values connecting with youth. We perform for Boy and Girl Scout troops, community organizations, and K-12 school groups all over Chicagoland. As one of JB's few living culture bearers, I maintain communal connections by teaching, specifically as the Dean of Skate University at The Rink in Chicago's predominantly Black Chatham neighborhood. I have taught over 10,000 students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds."

Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena (Iowa)

"I am an Indonesian artist-scholar serving as Assistant Professor of Music (Performance and Creativity) at Grinnell College, where I where I direct the Balinese Sound Ensemble and teach courses on Heavy Metal Music, Sonic Installations, Performance Art, and Noise and Activism. I am also a founding member of the Balinese Experimental duo ghOstMiSt, with dancer-anthropologist Dewa Ayu Eka Putri.

My academic, performance, and compositional research focuses on the intersections of Cosmology, Indigeneity, Environmental Activism, and Performativity in Balinese Gamelan, Heavy Metal, and Noise. I take post-colonial, performance studies, and creative ethnographic approaches to looking at the state of cultural sound and glocal community.

As a creative ethnographer, I have written articles, coupled with artistic compositions, that interrogate the state of performance in South-East Asian performing arts. Most notably, my articles "If a Dragon Dies in the Forest, Do Humans Hear a Sound?" (2022); "Fix Your Face": Performing Attitudes Between Mathcore and Beleganjur" (2022); and "ghOstMiSt's Trails of Indigeneity" (2021) discuss myriad perspectives on traditional, popular, and experimental Balinese performance idioms. I continue to perform and compose internationally, most recently as a member of the CHAN percussion ensemble with Susie Ibarra."

Jozefa Rogocki (Michigan)

"I was born in the UK to a Polish father and an English mother. As a child I loved the beautiful decorated eggs on the Easter cards we received from Poland. When I came to the US in 1999, I found a strong Polish community in Hamtramck, Detroit and began to participate in a traditional Polish art that represented community and belonging for me: Pysanky, or decorated eggs, a Slavic folk tradition that is thousands of years old.

I have practiced this art for 25 years and am honored to be recognized as an expert by my local Polish community. I learned the more advanced techniques from the Master Pysankarka, Helen Badulak, and have acquired extensive knowledge about the designs specific to various regions in Poland and Ukraine.

I participate in the Polish Dozynki Festival in Grand Rapids with the Polish Heritage Society, provide education workshops for the Polish Federated Home in Lansing, and offer workshops at libraries in the Greater Lansing Area as well as demonstrations anywhere from art galleries to gardening clubs to local schools. I have also been invited to present my work at the International Festival of Holland, Michigan. I am passionate about the art of Pysanky and excited to continue reflecting contemporary relevance within this Eastern European folk art."

Judith Kjenstad (Minnesota)

"I started painting by learning rosemaling, one of the trademarks of Norwegian folk art, earning a gold medal in rosemaling in 1981 from Vesterheim, the Norwegian American Museum.

Since then I have expanded my repertoire to include Swedish, German and Dutch decorative paintings as well as faux finishing.

I have produced large public and private commissions around the Midwest including the Hotel Pattee in Perry, Iowa. In Minneapolis I painted in the Black Forest Inn, Ingebretsen's and many stints at the old Dayton's Auditorium shows in Minneapolis as well as the Norway Pavilion at Epcot Cetner in Orlando, Florida.

I earned my bachelor of science degree in design from the University of Minnesota in 1990."

Roxanne C. Henry Laducer (North Dakota)

"I made my first Dreamcatcher in 2000. A cousin from Minnesota taught me and my children, and we made them as a family that summer. About ten years ago, I picked up the craft again.

I learned that the Dreamcatcher originated with my people, the Ojibwe, as a symbol of protection; I am part of the Bear Clan of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

The Dreamcatcher was originally made with Willow, a tree associated with the moon, the water, and the feminine; with dreams, deep emotions, and intuition. To me, the Dreamcatcher is a spiritual symbol of great love.

Making the Dreamcatcher has guided me into learning more of my culture and heritage. Through crafting dreamcatchers I have learned the healing properties of the Willow tree, and I have gone on to learn more Ojibwe traditions including smudging with sage and singing traditional songs.

Now I attend arts and craft shows and share what I have learned. I have taught at Dunseith Public School, the Turtle Mountain Heritage Center, and the Arts for Vets art gallery in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I feel honored that I am able to share the knowledge I have gained and keep such a tradition going. I honor my children and my people by doing so."

Ryan K. Johnson (Ohio)

"I am an award-winning performer, choreographer, and cultural leader described by Dance Magazine as 'one of the foremost percussive dance artists in the U.S.' I am dedicated to preserving and evolving African Diasporic traditions through performance, education, and community engagement.

I made history in 2024 as the first African American body percussionist to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, celebrating my boundary-pushing work at the intersection of sound, storytelling, and embodiment.

As Executive Artistic Director of SOLE Defined Percussive Dance Company, I blend technical excellence with visionary leadership. I have successfully led national tours, curated large-scale productions, and secured over $500,000 in arts funding. My performance and choreographic credits include Jacob's Pillow, The Joyce Theater, Cirque du Soleil, Amazon Studios, and STOMP, among many others.

Holding an MFA in Dance and Social Justice from the University of Texas at Austin, my work is rooted in cultural equity and artistic innovation. I bring deep expertise in body percussion, tap, immersive technologies, and arts education, bridging tradition and innovation to inspire audiences and empower communities across the country."

Ken Cook (South Dakota)

"My work is primarily meter-and-rhyme cowboy poetry, memorized and presented to the listener. Four decades as a ranch hand, plus several seasons as an actor with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, are the cornerstones of my artistic history. Though my father's death brought me back to South Dakota and put ranch work center stage, by the '90s I was writing poetry about ranch life and starting to perform again. By 2010, I was named the Academy of Western Artists Poet of the Year.

Cowboy poetry is a relevant art form that has tremendous value and appeal. I have worked with high school teachers seeking alternative lesson plans and provided cowboy entertainment at functions across the West.

I have recorded three spoken-word CDs of original poetry and co-authored Passing It On: Poetry by Great Plains Cowboys, which also includes a CD. I was a founding member at CowboyPoetry.com, a project of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry. My poetry and recitations of classic poetry are included in compilation CDs available worldwide and my website. My work has also been included in the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering's 30th anniversary anthology.

The poetry and music of the working cowboy has a past, a present, and a future. It frustrates editors, angers English teachers, and delights hundreds of thousands across America. It is real, heartfelt, and humorous. My work pays tribute to past as well as future generations."

Gabriela Jiménez Marván (Wisconsin)

"My artistic path is rooted in cartonería (the Mexican folk tradition of paper-and-paste sculpture), first introduced to me in the vibrant festivities of my childhood in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In 2016, I began training with traditional masters such as Monica Franco and Raziel Pacheco, whose families have practiced cartonería for generations. Later, I had the honor of learning from the renowned Leonardo Linares. I also studied at the Center of Arts and the Folk Art Museum in Morelos before moving to the United States.

In 2020, I founded the Mexican Folk Art Collective, a space for artists to preserve and share traditions in Wisconsin. Since then, we have co-organized Día de Muertos celebrations in the Driftless Region, developed school programs, and curated exhibitions with museums and galleries. My workshops and presentations have been welcomed by nonprofits, ecological organizations, and institutions including the Consulate of Mexico in Milwaukee, the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., Latino Arts, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

In 2021, I was selected for Mexico's National Cultural Conferences for migrant artists, which produced the international touring exhibition "Corazón Migrante." More recently, I received a Wisconsin Arts Board apprenticeship grant in 2024 and presented large-scale alebrijes (fantastical folk creatures) at Sauk County's Art DTour.

I believe traditional art sparks creativity and fosters belonging, building bridges between heritage and community. Through teaching and sharing these traditions, I hope to cultivate cultural pride, freedom of expression, and understanding across communities."