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Multicultural Arts Initiative

The Lincoln Arts Council's Multicultural Arts Initiative, originally funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, is a project that primarily focuses on educating the community about our rich cultural artistic traditions while cataloging and preserving them. Folklorist Roger Welsh undertook the New American Folk Arts Project "to foster, showcase, encourage, support, and promote the skills and traditions of new Nebraskans, and to make it easier and more interesting for you to enjoy and learn about them."

Wonderful arts and traditions have come from many countries and are making a home here in Lincoln. We have documented some of them, and their stories are in the Multicultural Artists (Visual & Performing) section. You may even find yourself wanting to share your story with us.

Visual Artists

Performing Artists

Multicultural Artist Residency Programs

Michael Opoku

Artist Michael Opoku worked with children in the Lincoln Public Schools Community Learning Center, teaching them the art of drumming. Micahel Opoku, from Ghana, Africa has been teaching African music, dance, customs, tribes, religion, food, geography, and traditional political systems for twenty years regionally and internationally. Michael has a lot of passion for teaching about his culture and drumming. Michael also started a musical group called Ashanti African Roots, which plays a variety of African musical styles regularly in Lincoln.

Daniel Kubert

Dancer Daniel Kubert instructed children about the art of dance and how stories can be expressed through movement. Daniel Kubert has taught and choreographed for numerous schools and community centers regionally and in 1991 he was hired by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Locally, he has created/directed for community theaters, Nebraska Repertory Theater, high schools, and had produced solo theater pieces. He presently teaches at numerous studios in Lincoln and is a teaching artist with The Diavolo Dance Theater based in Los Angeles.