ArtsPath Directory Artists
 

Last update: Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:27 AM

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Jan Kinney

Folk Arts • Storyteller

1900 Sixteenth Avenue
Altoona, PA 16601
(814) 943-1080

jan.kinney@verizon.net

Jan Kinney’s biography might begin, “One bright December day, a little baby girl was born. No sooner did she slide into this world than her mouth started flappin’, and it’s been flappin’ ever since.” Her love of story directed her to a career in library science. One fateful day, however, she heard a professional storyteller and her life changed. Within five years, she earned a Master of Education degree from Penn State University, retired from library work, and started telling full time. Jan has studied her art with some of the greatest storytellers in Ireland and Wales. At home in Altoona, she initiated the summer ghost story sessions at Baker Mansion and the monthly storytelling programs at the Altoona Library and founded the storytelling group, ASOP. She has produced three audio tapes with two more in progress and is the co-founder of Stories in Motion, a storytelling and modern dance collaboration. She has appeared at many major storytelling festivals in the eastern United States and has been in the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Artists-in-Education Directory since 1992, offering a variety of storytelling programs, class visits, and workshops for adults and children. Also, Jan has been chosen to participate in the Pennsylvania Humanities Council's Commonwealth Speakers Program for 2006-07.

This project is made possible through the AIE Partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. It is funded by the citizens of Pennsylvania through an annual legislative appropriation and administered locally by ArtsPath through the College of Fine Arts at http://old.www.iup.edu/images/iup_top.gif. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is additionally supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.