OFTA Hears Esther White on Art of Storytelling

OFTA (Old Friends Talk Arts) opens its fourth year with a program titled “The Art of Storytelling” by Monmouth College Professor Emerita, Esther White on Wednesday, January 11th at 10:00 AM at the Buchanan Center for the Arts on the square in downtown Monmouth, IL.

Ms. White had a long and distinguished career in the public schools of Iowa. She then taught in the Education Department at Monmouth College from 1974 to 1988. One of her many retirement interests has been several consecutive years of attendance at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. The Festival, which was started in 1973, now attracts more than 100,000 visitors every October. Storytellers come from around the country and the world to share the local tales and ancient myths of their homelands. Visitors can wander through the festival tents and listen to everything from cowboy poetry to creation stories.

Ms. White will be developing a case for storytelling as an engrossing, entertaining, and serious art form for people of all ages. We invite you to come and listen to her experiences and hear a tale or two.

OFTA is a special “seniors” program of the Buchanan Center for the Arts, but its second Wednesday of the month meetings from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM are open to all members of the public free of charge. Refreshments are served.

If you have an arts topic you would like to talk about or an arts event you would like to promote in 2006, contact Jim De Young at 734-5529 or e-mail him at jdeyoung@maplecity.com.

The Buchanan Center for the Arts is open weekdays from 9-5 and Saturdays from 10-2 and is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state Agency. The upcoming gallery exhibit (January 7-February 4) will feature work by Galesburg photographer, Tom Foley.