The Folk Alliance Region Midwest has selected Hiawatha Music Co-op founding member and current Board of Directors member, Susan Bertram for their 2019 Folk Tradition in the Midwest Lifetime Achievement Award. Each year at the annual conference FARM presents two awards, the Lantern Bearer Award and the Folk Tradition in the Midwest Lifetime Award.
The Annual Folk Tradition in the Midwest Lifetime Award is awarded at the annual FARM Gathering to a living individual who resides in the Midwest and whose involvement in the Midwest folk music and dance community: 1) has been of significant duration, 25 years or more; 2) has been of significant intensity; 3) has involved significant service to the Midwest folk community; 4) has reached, and reaches, beyond a single sector, such as concert performance, into the wider community; and 5) has extended folk music and/or dance outward, into the wider community.
The FARM Board has standardized nomination and selection procedures for this award, which is growing in meaning and prestige and which serves not only to honor one person, but to increase awareness of and strengthen ties within and beyond the Midwest folk music and dance community.
Susan Bertram is a founding member of the Hiawatha Music Co-op, a non- profit organization born in 1979 with the sole purpose of presenting, promoting, and preserving traditional music. Over the past 41 years, many founding members have moved away or have found other life tasks to attend to. Many Board members have come and gone. Susan is the sole founding member and regular Board Member who has been consistently present and actively engaged with the Co-op since 1979.
Susan has been active as a Board member on twenty-six of the 41 Board of Directors. She has served as president, vice president or treasurer on nineteen Boards. She remained active as a mother of 3 young children during years that she was not on the Board. Susan has kept the music going. Her dedication to the Co-op and its mission is undeniable. There is not another person who is more responsible for the success of Hiawatha than Susan Bertram.
Susan is also one of the key committee members on our Concert & Event Committee. Hiawatha is more than a Festival. There are also concerts, performances, dances, workshops, and youth education events throughout the year. Most recently in 2015, Susan designed a monthly concert series that is held once a month at the local brewery, called Hiawatha On TAAP (traditional acoustic art performance), designed our annual Yooper Uke Week, and many other events that Hiawatha puts on during the year.
Susan has served as our Festival Token Coordinator for 41 years, in addition to serving on the Festival Committee. She co-chaired our 40th Festival Celebration Committee in 2018.
The FARM purposes are to promote traditional, contemporary and multi-cultural folk music and dance and related performing arts in the Midwest region, hold an annual regional conference, represent the interests of our members to FAI and carry out such other projects as are of benefit to FAI members in the Midwest. The FARM region includes the following states and provinces or territories: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Wisconsin. As members of a community, FARM believes in helping each other to develop skills, build networks, and find ways to present folk art in both traditional and non-traditional venues. FARM will continue to promote the growth of the ever-changing world of folk music and dance for future generations. This is the spirit found at the annual FARM gatherings.
