“KHRUSHCHEV IN IOWA” 50TH ANNIVERSARY 1959-2009
CELEBRATING AGRICULTURE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING
Fifty years after Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev came to Iowa during the icy depths of the Cold War to visit his farmer friend Roswell Garst, a statewide “Khrushchev in Iowa” commemoration will be held August 27-30, 2009. Participants include US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Nikita’s son Sergei Khrushchev, and more than 40 Russian and US agribusiness leaders.
JOIN IN THIS UNIQUE CELEBRATION OF AN AMAZING HISTORICAL MOMENT
-Thursday Aug 27: Khrushchev’s Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer, William Taubman, will speak at Drake.
-Friday Aug 28: Come to a “Khrushchev in Iowa” conference and banquet at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.
-Saturday Aug 29: Bring the family to an Agricultural Progress Festival in Coon Rapids (70 miles NW of Des Moines)
-Sunday Aug 30: Iowa Sister States hosts a “Faces of Iowa-Russia Connections” Symposium and BBQ at Camp Dodge
Visit www.creatinggreatplaces.org to register and to purchase conference and banquet tickets. All other events are free and open to the public.
Also at www.creatinggreatplaces.org, view historical documents, photos and film, and leave your own memories of the visit or of later US/Soviet exchanges. Help celebrate this unique chapter in US history!
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DETAILS ON EACH EVENT FOLLOW
Thurs 8/27/09 AViD Author Series Presents William Taubman
Taubman is the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (2003)
7:00 pm-8:30 pm, followed by book signing and a reception.
Sheslow Auditorium, Drake University
2507 University Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50311-4505
Free and open to the public. Please register online at www.creatinggreatplaces.org
Fri 8/28/09 “Khrushchev in Iowa” Conference
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Hotel Fort Des Moines
1000 Walnut St, Des Moines, IA 50309
Two simultaneous panels:
Feeding a Hungry World: Agricultural Progress, Productivity and Sustainability, featuring Kendall Lamkey, Chair of the Iowa State University Dept. of Agronomy; Ted Crosbie, Vice-President of Global Breeding for Monsanto; Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture; and Russian agribusiness leaders
Citizen Diplomacy in U.S.-Russia Relations, featuring Sergei Khrushchev, Ted Townsend of the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy, and Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Michael Gartner.
Open to the public ($25 registration fee). Please purchase ticket at www.creatinggreatplaces.org
Fri 8/28/09 “Khrushchev in Iowa” Banquet
5:15 – 6:15 pm Reception (cash bar)
6:30 – 8:30 pm Banquet,
An elegant evening in the Grand Ballroom with the same menu that was served to Khrushchev 50 years ago and a performance by the Des Moines Metro Opera. Ambassador Ken Quinn of the World Food Prize is the emcee and speakers include Ambassador Sergey I. Kisylak, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack; Senator Chuck Grassley,& Lt. Governor Patty Judge
Hotel Fort Des Moines
1000 Walnut St, Des Moines, IA 50309
Open to the public. Please purchase tickets ($125 per person) at www.creatinggreatplaces.org
Sat 8/29/09 Garst Farm Dedication at Whiterock Conservancy
This ceremony will celebrate the entry of the Garst Farm into the National Register of Historic Places. Speakers include: Antonia Garst Lee, Sergei Khrushchev, and Wes Jackson, President of the Kansas Land Institute.
9:45 – 11:00 am
Garst Farm at Whiterock Conservancy
1390 Hwy 141, Coon Rapids, IA 50058 (70 miles NW of Des Moines on Highway 141)
Free and open to the public, please register online www.creatinggreatplaces.org
Sat 8/29/09 Agricultural Progress Festival in Coon Rapids
1:30 pm Farm machinery parade
2:30 pm Secretary Vilsack and other dignitaries will give speeches on Main Street
3:30 and again at 5:00 pm , inaugural performance of an original play by Cindy Mercati on Garst/Khrushchev friendship
3:15-10:00 pm Live music on Main Street
4:30-11:30 pm Beer garden (cash bar) on Main Street
Also includes inauguration of a major public art piece by David Dahlquist, agricultural displays, family fun activities, historic film clips, and a Khrushchev and Garst look-alike contest (right after the speeches). Please feel free to wear 1950s clothing.
Free and open to the public, please register on line www.creatinggreatplaces.org
Sun 08/30/08 Iowa Sister States ”Faces of Iowa/Russia Connections" Symposium and BBQ
5:00-8:00 pm
This event is especially for participants in Iowa/Russia exchange programs. The program includes Iowa Governor Chet Culver; Deputy Governor of Stavropol Georgy Efremov; Brigadier General Timothy Orr; and Valentina Slater-Fominykh, Chair of Humanities Iowa.
Camp Dodge of the Iowa National Guard
7105 Northwest 70th Avenue
Johnston, Iowa 50131-1824
Free and open to the public (goodwill donations encouraged) please register online www.creatinggreatplaces.org
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