Event Contact: National Music Museum
Contact Email: nmm@usd.edu
Contact Phone: 6056583450
Event URL: https://www.nmmusd.org/
Event Locator: 2026-ACJBDL

Explore Irish Dance Traditions and Music at the NMM with the Clay County Cloggers

The National Music Museum will continue exploring America’s musical heritage this month with an educational performance by the Clay County Cloggers, led by Grace Freeman, on Saturday, May 23. Performances will take place at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the museum’s Janet Lucille Wanzek Performance Hall.

The group will present traditional soft shoe (ghillie) dances while discussing Irish dance traditions and the evolution of clogging in America. Through music, movement, and storytelling, visitors will learn how Irish cultural traditions helped shape American folk dance practices.

In conjunction with the performances, NMM Curator Arian Sheets will offer a special gallery talk at 12:30 p.m., highlighting instruments associated with Irish dance traditions from the museum’s collections. Featured instruments include a tin whistle by Feadóg Teo (NMM 06578), a dancing master’s fiddle by Thomas Perry (NMM 02674), and a harp by Clark (NMM 05777).

Visitors are also invited to experience the NMM’s newest special exhibition, Of Thee I Sing: Origin, Heritage and Patriotism, now open in the Jason and Betsy Groves Special Exhibition Gallery. The exhibition explores America’s story through musical instruments — from Native traditions and colonial America to immigrant craftsmanship and patriotic expression — highlighting how music has shaped the nation’s cultural identity.

Included with museum admission (always free for USD faculty, staff, & students!)