Records of the Great River Festival of Arts from 1960-1986 were compiled by Frank and Lenore Italiano. Organized by concert season, they include materials from the musical life of the festival when it was under Frank’s direction. There are festival programs; advertising posters; newspaper clippings; photographs that were in the newspaper; application information and forms for the Symphony School; member lists of the symphony, board, and symphony school faculty; board reports; and a scrapbook created by Lenore Italiano, administrator of the festival, that gives an idea of the administrative components of the Coulee Region Symphony.
The collection can be used to learn about the scope of the music played during those years, the visiting artists that came as mentors for the students in the Symphony School, information about the concerts given by the symphony in other communities, members of the symphony and community leaders who supported the efforts over the years. There is not much representative material in this collection from the other aspects of the Great River Festival of Arts other than the musical endeavors.
