Apply by Oct 2, 2023 for Funds to Teach/Learn Traditional Arts

by Emily Hartlerode

The University of Oregon’s Oregon Folklife Network is accepting applications until Monday, October 2, 2023 for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) for projects in 2024. The program offers traditional artists and culture keepers a $3,500 stipend to teach their cultural practices to apprentices from their same communities, Tribes, sacred or occupational groupsThe stipend supports master artists to share their knowledge, skills and expertise with apprentices of great promise, empowering them to carry on and strengthen Oregon’s living cultural traditions. Apprenticeship teams agree to a video interview, and make a public presentation, which can be hosted at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at University of Oregon.

Oregon’s 2023 TAAP awards supported Kalapuya basketweaver, Stephanie Craig (Grand Ronde); South Indian vina and voice performer/teacher, Sreevidhya Chandramouli (Portland); Guinean master drummer/dancer, Alseny Yansane (Eugene), Mexican charro, Antonio Huerta (Springfield); and Hawaiian Hula dancer/teacher, Andrea Luchese (Ashland).

Oregon Folklife Network seeks a slate of artists in 2024 representing artists, demographics, and regions under-represented in the prior ten years of funding. All Oregonians practicing cultural traditions emerging from their heritage or Tribes are encouraged to apply. This program does not fund historic reenactments or cultural appropriation.

To learn more about application procedures and eligibility or to recommend a TAAP applicant, view our guidelines online, email ofn@uoregon.edu, or call 541-346-3820. Oregon Folklife Network staff members are available to provide application advice, and will provide feedback on draft applications up to one weeks prior to the deadline.

Completed applications are due no later than 5 pm on Monday, October 2 at the Oregon Folklife Network, 242 Knight Library, 6204 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6204. NOTE: This is NOT a postmark deadline.  

Announcing the 2023 TAAP Award Recipients

We are excited to introduce the 2023 TAAP awardee cohort!

The TAAP program offers folk and traditional master artists and culture keepers a $3,500 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their same communities, Tribes, sacred or occupational groups. The stipend supports master artists in sharing their knowledge, skills and expertise with apprentices of great promise who will be empowered to carry on and strengthen Oregon’s living cultural traditions.

Meet the 2023 TAAP Award Recipients:

Sreevidhya Chandramouli

Sreevidhya Chandramouli with the Chandramoulis quartet. All four are seated with their instruments.

Sreevidhya Chandramouli with the Chandramoulis quartet

Sreevidhya is a tenth generation descendent from the illustrious Karaikudi Vina Tradition of South India. She trained in the traditional gurukulam (living with/near the teacher) setting under her mother Rajeswari Padmanabhan. Sreevidhya has served as artist-in-residence at University of Washington and University of Oregon and briefly served as adjunct faculty at University of Oregon. She has been teaching in the Pacific Northwest for more than three decades preserving the subtle aesthetics and purity of the Karaikudi Vina tradition. She is a founding member of the nonprofit organization Dhvani dedicated to the education, preservation and dissemination of art forms of India.

Apprentice: Nidhi Yadalam

Nidhi Yadalam is an Indian American musician of South-Indian heritage. Through this apprenticeship, she will connect with her cultural traditions through exploring various styles of Carnatic music and other art forms, as well as learning about languages, mythology, and folk narratives. Nidhi has studied under Sreevidhya Chandramouli for five years and they have been working together to further her knowledge on improvisational, lyrical, rhythmic, and emotive elements of Carnatic music. Through the apprenticeship, Nidhi wishes to ultimately be able to assist her teacher in classes, and mentor her juniors. She believes that being part of imparting this art is important to keeping the tradition alive and evolving for generations to come.

Stephanie Craig

Smiling woman with auburn hair, pulled back with bangs holds a string of basketry materials across outstretched hands.

Stephanie Craig proudly displays a cache of natural weaving fibers

Stephanie is of Santiam and Yoncalla Kalapuya, Takelma Rogue River, Cow Creek Umpqua, and Clackamas Chinook descent and a seventh-generation traditional basket weaver, tradition keeper, and ethnobotanist (the traditional harvesting, preparation, and storage of indigenous plants). She comes from a long line of strong traditional women-weavers in her tribe. She grew up around basketry and listened to her great-great-aunties and other tribal elders talk about the old ways. Stephanie learned to weave through the oral traditions of her family when she was young. Her weaving and plant teachings have come from traditional weaving elders and other tribal members from neighboring tribes. Besides her early and informal apprenticeships with elders on the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde reservation, The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, Suquamish Indian Tribe, and the Lummi Nation, Craig has studied under three of the most accomplished Tribal basket makers in Oregon – the late Sanda “Sam” Henny of the Grand Ronde Tribe, the late Minerva Soucie of the Burns-Paiute Tribe, the late Pat Courtney Gold (Wasq’u) – and renowned anthropologist Margaret Mathewson. Following the tradition, which encompasses all aspects of basket making, Craig harvests all her own material–beaked and California hazel, sandbar and gray willow, juncus, tule, and cattails–all from traditional sites and other closely guarded gathering spots in the mountains.

Apprentice: Dakota Zimmer

Dakota Zimmer was born in Portland, Oregon. She is an enrolled tribal member of Grand Ronde and descended from Rogue River, Molalla, and Clackamas Tribes. Growing up in Grand Ronde, Dakota has been immersed in tribal culture. In addition to attending pow wows several times a year, Dakota has crafted traditional beaded items throughout the last 20 years. Recently, Dakota has been surrounded by the traditional baskets, materials, and weaving techniques of her ancestors through her employment at her tribe’s museum. This sparked an interest in Dakota to learn more about the traditions of her ancestors. Dakota comes from a line of basket weavers but over time that knowledge of her family was lost. Through her apprenticeship with Stephanie, Dakota can bring this tradition back to her family and community for future generations.

Kumu Hula Andrea Luchese

Andrea Luchese headshot, and she is wearing a crown made of plants

Kumu Hula Andrea Luchese

Andrea is the Kumu Hula (master teacher) for Hālau Hula Ka Pi’o O Ke Ānuenue “the arch of the rainbow,” a Hawaiian cultural dance school she formed in 2007. She has taught hula in her community since 2003, and in 2014 became an ‘uniki (graduated) kumu hula, under Kumu Hula Raylene Haʻaleleʻa Kawaiaeʻa and Kumu Hula Keala Ching, both native Hawaiians, and the hula traditions of Halau ʻO Haʻaleleʻa and Na Wai ʻIwi Ola, respectively. This formal and rigorous training in the protocols and practices of hula granted her the kuleana (responsibility) to steward and perpetuate these lineally-connected traditions. Andrea was also hanai-ed (adopted) into the lineage of Kumu Hula Sybil Ku’uipo Hewett, who remains a significant mentor of kupuna (elder) wisdom to her today. Kumu Andrea also has a Masters of Arts degree in Dance and Spirituality, and is the founder and president of Kapiʻoānuenue, a non-profit cultural arts organization whose mission is to actively participate in the promotion, perpetuation, and preservation of the wisdom and knowledge of the Hawaiian culture and its traditional practices.

Apprentice: Tia ‘Ohi’a Lehua Kumakua ‘Ahihi McLean

Tia was born and raised on the island of Maui. She was named after her beloved tutu (grandmother) the hardworking and humble matriarch of the Pelekai family.  Tia had the honor of learning many cultural and spiritual traditions, both in school (Hawaiian history, language, and ‘ukulele), and at home from her Hawaiian side of the family, who were from Waikapu and Hana, Maui.  Tia began dancing hula at the age of five from Kumu Hula Iola Balubar. In her teen years, she studied with Kumu Hula Robyn Kneubuhl, hula kahiko (ancient style) with Kumu Hula Keali’i Reichel and hula ‘auana (modern style) with Kumu Hula Uluwehi Guerrero. As an adult, Tia reignited her passion for learning and perpetuating the hula tradition when she became a haumana (student) of Kumu Andrea in 2010.  Through weekly classes with Kumu Andrea, workshops with Native practitioners, Hō’ike presentations, and alaka’i (leadership) responsibilities, Tia’s hula knowledge and connection have vastly expanded. Tia has also deepened her ‘ike (knowledge) of hula practices and protocols through being selected by Kumu Andrea to become a ho’opa’a (chanter) to accompany dancers for the hālau (hula school).

Alseny Yansane

Headshot of Alseny Yansane, a Guinean drum artist

Alseny Yansane

Since age seven, Alseny Yansane has been immersed in the musical and dance tradition of his native country, Guinea, West Africa. Alseny trained and performed in many competitions as a dancer, drummer, and acrobat during the dawn of the Republic’s newly won independence from France. Historically, this was a time when art and cultural appreciation and cultivation were at an all-time high and artist training was rigorous and systematic. Artists had to compete on a national level annually to move up to higher ranks of artistic status. These competitions were held in the heart of Alseny’s neighborhood and attracted groups from all over Guinea who represented the art and culture specific to various regions and ethnic groups.

This has given Alseny a wealth of knowledge about the history and cultural diversity behind Guinean performance arts, a solid artistic foundation, and a strong drive for excellence. Alseny has worked with some of Guinea’s most reputable performance groups, including Kemoko Sano’s Ballet Merveilles and Jean Macuely’s Ballet Sanke. In 1993, Alseny was recruited to join the most prestigious of all national groups, the world-renowned Ballet Africains. Chosen to tour with them several times, Alseny has dazzled audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and Morocco.

Apprentice: Mamadouba ‘Papa’ Yansane

Mamadouba ‘Papa’ Yansane is an emerging traditional Guinean drummer who comes from a line of extraordinary artists and performers. Born in Guinea, he has taken part of folkloric events and cultural ceremonies for as long as he can remember and began music in early childhood. Papa has long been praised for his exceptional musical talent which he has been practicing with his father, Alseny Yansane, for the past eight years in Eugene, Oregon. Papa and Alseny have been performing on stage and co-teaching classes and workshops. Since 2020, Papa has been working with his father on the tradition of building and tuning drumheads. He now wishes to take this experience a step further by learning the art of heading a djembe and building dunduns.

José Antonio Huerta

José Antonio Huerta performing Mexican Charrería, the image shows Antonio making a lasso

José Antonio Huerta

Jose Antonio Huerta performs traditional charrería, a skill of horsemanship, cattle work, and a sophisticated rope work that dates back to the 1500s. Huerta showcases his work at local community gatherings. Antonio Huerta grew up in a rural village in Jalisco, Mexico. His family made a living farming. They raised cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs, and chickens and he was tasked with the cattle and the horse work. As a result, he developed a passion for charrería. His father and grandparents were excellent horsemen and talented in the use of the rope and always strived to pass on those talents to him. Antonio has now been performing charrería for over 19 years.

Apprentice: Miguel Ruiz Topete, Jr.

Miguel Ruiz Topete, Jr. is a young charro who grew up in Corvallis, Oregon in a family that does farming work. His father has always trained horses and that allowed him to develop an interest in riding, roping, and doing cattle work. Over the years, he has participated, alongside his father, in cultural events such as parades, private parties, and community events where they would perform horse riding and roping. For the past 8 years, they have collaborated with Antonio Huerta who has spearheaded events in the Eugene/Springfield and surrounding areas highlighting the charrería tradition. These experiences have allowed Miguel to find a great sense of community through those activities. Miguel would like to improve his roping skills through an apprenticeship with Antonio. He deeply identifies with the charrería tradition and everything it represents.

This program is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Oregon Arts Commission.  OFN is administered by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History (MNCH) and is supported in part by the Oregon Historical Society, the Oregon Cultural Trust, and the University of Oregon Librairies.

Gratitude To TAAP 2022-2023 Applicants

The call for applications for this year’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program has closed on October 31st and we are happy to announce that we have received nine applications. We are very delighted to have a geographically and culturally rich cohort of candidates this year. It is always a delight to be able to assist Oregon culture bearers with sharing their narratives and highlighting their traditions. 

The program will offer four folk and traditional master artists and culture keepers a $3,500 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their same communities, Tribes, sacred or occupational groups. The stipend supports master artists in sharing their knowledge, skills, and expertise with apprentices of great promise, empowering them to carry on and strengthen Oregon’s living cultural traditions. Artists may make public presentations through the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. 

We look forward to announcing our 2023 TAAP awardees and to supporting and celebrating the work they do in transmitting and representing their craft and cultural traditions.  

Oregon Folklife Network encourages Oregonians practicing cultural traditions emerging from their heritage or Tribes to start considering taking part in our future TAAP cycle.  

To learn more about application procedures and eligibility or to recommend a TAAP applicant, visit mnch.uoregon.edu/OFN-Programs, email ofn@uoregon.edu, or call 541-346-3820. Oregon Folklife Network staff members are available to provide application advice, recommendations and feedback and will direct you to resources to help you with the application process prior to submission. 

Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Application Deadline Extended: October 31, 2022

Oregon Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Announces New Application Deadline Extended to October 31, 2022

Photo is of John Meade (left), a 2021-2022 TAAP awardee who teaches Appalachian banjo and fiddle tunes.

EUGENE, Ore. – (Sept 28, 2022) – The University of Oregon’s Oregon Folklife Network has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts plus $40,000 from Oregon Arts Commission to support Oregon’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

Oregon Folklife Network is accepting applications until October 31, 2022 for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) for projects in 2023. The program offers folk and traditional master artists and culture keepers a $3,500 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their same communities, Tribes, sacred or occupational groupsThe stipend supports master artists in sharing their knowledge, skills and expertise with apprentices of great promise who will be empowered to carry on and strengthen Oregon’s living cultural traditions. Artist may make public presentations through the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Oregon’s 2022 TAAP awards supported hip-hop emcee and educator, Mic Crenshaw (Portland); Hindustani and Rajasthani vocal and instrumental music performer and teacher, Nisha Joshi (Portland); Appalachian old-time musician and scholar, John Meade (Albany), Irish musician, singer and linguist, Brian Ó hAirt (Portland); and Persian Santoor maestro, Hossein Salehi (Beaverton). All mentored apprentices from their own culture groups in the traditional forms noted, with OFN providing technical support as needed for socially distanced teaching, learning, and presenting.

Oregon Folklife Network encourages applications from Oregonians practicing cultural traditions emerging from their heritage or Tribes. This program does not fund historic reenactments or cultural appropriation.

To learn more about application procedures and eligibility or to recommend a TAAP applicant, visit our website, email ofn@uoregon.edu, or call 541-346-3820. Oregon Folklife Network staff members are available to provide application advice and will review and provide feedback on draft applications prior to submission.Completed applications are due no later than 5 pm on October 31 at the Oregon Folklife Network, 242 Knight Library, 6204 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6204. NOTE: This is NOT a postmark deadline.

Artist Spotlight: Francisco Bautista

Francisco Bautista, a Zapotec fabric artist, is a 2021 TAAP award recipient.

Listen to a short excerpt from Bautista’s TAAP interview with OFN Interim Director Emily Hartlerode and graduate employee Jenna Ehlinger. Bautista worked with his son David for the TAAP program.

Francisco Bautista

Bautista was born in the town of Teotitlán de Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up learning to weave from his father and grandfather, both of whom made a living weaving. In 2003, he and his wife moved to Sandy, Oregon, where they began weaving and taking their rugs to Saturday Market in Portland and other shows in Oregon. As a member of the Portland Handweavers Guild, he has demonstrated Zapotec weaving at several fairs and shows, including Art in the Pearl.

Bautista has taught workshops about the Zapotec method of natural dyeing in Sandy and Bend, Oregon. In 2017, he shared his Zapotec weaving tradition with non-Zapotec immigrants from Mexico through a program sponsored by the Sandy Public Library at Sandy Vista Apartments. Additionally, he volunteers in many demonstrations and teaching programs throughout the community.

This excerpt was edited and produced by OFN graduate employee Lillian DeVane

Announcing the 2022 TAAP Award Recipients

We are excited to introduce the 2022 TAAP awardee cohort!

The TAAP program offers folk and traditional master artists and culture keepers a $3,500 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their same communities, Tribes, sacred or occupational groups. The stipend supports master artists in sharing their knowledge, skills and expertise with apprentices of great promise who will be empowered to carry on and strengthen Oregon’s living cultural traditions.

Meet the 2022 TAAP Award Recipients:

Mic Crenshaw

Mic Crenshaw

Mic Crenshaw is an emcee, rapper, spoken word artist, poet, activist, and educator. Crenshaw has taught workshops for youth through the Obo Addy Legacy Project, Caldera Arts, Multnomah County Library, the Boedecker Foundation and Young Audiences in Portland schools and in youth correctional facilities across Oregon.

This project will foster future mentor, apprentice relationships formal and informal as the young learn from their elders through observation, discussion, education, critique, and interactive entertainment.

Nisha Joshi

Nisha Joshi

Dr. Nisha Joshi is a Hindustani vocal and instrumental music performer and the director and teacher of Swaranjali Academy of Indian Music in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Joshi was born and raised in Rajasthan where she grew up studying North Indian classical (Hindustani) music and learning folk songs and dances of Rajasthan.  Dr. Joshi will work with her apprentice and produce a musical performance with harmonium accompaniments.

John Meade

John Meade

John Meade is a self-taught banjo player and a practitioner of the Appalachian old-time musical tradition. He has strong ties with the tradition through his family’s origins and the relations he has developed by playing in important gatherings such as the Mud City Old Time Gathering and the Portland Old Time Gathering which is one of the largest gatherings of Appalachian musicians in the West.

John will teach regional banjo and fiddle tunes from Appalachia. The majority of the tunes come from West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina. The tradition developed in this area in the 2nd half of the 19th Century and came out of a blending of musical traditions from Celtic and African cultures.

Brian Ó hAirt

Brian Ó hAirt

Brian Ó hAirt is a master musician in Irish music. He is deeply involved to the preservation of Irish cultural heritage and traditions (especially music) and Gaelic language. He has worked closely with native Irish singers. He studied in Ireland and earned two master’s degrees there before moving to Oregon to work as a full-time musician and music teacher.

Due in part to the deep connection the songs have to their native communities and the very unique features of the Irish language and its congruous singing style, it is very difficult to promote traditional in Irish Gaelic singing here in the U.S. As such, an apprenticeship is an integral way of assuring singing within the diaspora continues.

Hossein Salehi

Hossein Salehi

Hossein Salehi learned the traditional art of Santoor-playing as a child. When his family migrated from Iran to the United States in 1987, he was unable to bring his instrument and purchasing one in Oregon was not an option; it simply did not exist. Homesick, and with the help of a friend with a talent for woodworking, he built his first Santoor.

For the last fifty years, Hossein has accepted and trained over 1000 students. His whole purpose in teaching is to familiarize people with this unique Persian instrument in order to keep it alive, and also assist students of Persian background access, as well as preserve their traditional culture of Iran.

2021 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Awards

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Each year, Oregon Folklife Network’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) assists accomplished mentors in passing on their living traditions to promising apprentices of the same cultural community. A prestigious statewide honor, TAAP awards are often a precursor for traditional artists to be nominated for National Heritage Fellowship awards through the National Endowment for the Arts. […]

UPDATE: Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Applications extended: DUE OCTOBER 16, 2020

                                                            

Oregon Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program receives NEA funds, and New Applications Accepted through Oct 16, 2020

Oregon Folklife Network is now accepting applications for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) for 2021. The program offers folk and traditional master artists and culture keepers a $3,500 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their own communities, Tribes, and religious or occupational groups. The stipend supports master artists in sharing their knowledge, skills and expertise with apprentices of great promise who will be empowered to carry on and strengthen Oregon’s living cultural traditions. Artist presentations will be made public through the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Oregon’s 2020 TAAP awardees include traditional Persian santoor musician Hossein Salehi of Beaverton; Mexican charro (trick-roping expert) Josue Noel Napoles Mendoza of Portland; Mexican talabartero (leather worker) Miguel Angel Ruiz Rangel of Corvallis; Cayuse/Nez Perce/Umatilla weaver and gatherer Celeste Whitewolf of Tigard/Warm Springs; and Longhouse/Plateau seamstress and beadworker H’Klumaiyat-Roberta Joy Kirk of Warm Springs, recent recipient of an Oregon Governor’s Arts Award. All mentored apprentices from their own culture groups and Tribes in the traditional forms noted, with OFN providing technical support for socially distanced teaching.

Oregon Folklife Network encourages applications from Oregonians practicing cultural traditions emerging from their heritage or Tribes. This program does not fund historic reenactments or cultural appropriation.

To learn more about application procedures and eligibility or to recommend a TAAP applicant, visit ofn.uoregon.edu, email eafanado@uoregon.edu, or call 541-346-3820. Oregon Folklife Network staff members are available to provide application advice and will review and provide feedback on draft applications prior to submission.

Completed applications are due no later than 5 pm on October 16 at the Oregon Folklife Network, 242 Knight Library, 6204 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6204. NOTE: This is NOT a postmark deadline. 

Oregon Folklife Network provides this program thanks in part to a $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant supports Oregon’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and other statewide initiatives to promote the state’s folk and traditional artists. TAAP is also funded in part by the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Historical Society.

OFN is housed at the University of Oregon’s knight Library and administered by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. MNCH enhances knowledge of Earth’s environments and cultures, inspiring stewardship of our collective past, present, and future. With collections representing millions of years and each of the planet’s continents, it’s a place for digging into science, celebrating culture, and joining together to create a just and sustainable world. The museum is located on the University of Oregon campus near Hayward Field. Oregon Trail and other EBT cardholders receive admission discounts. Visit mnch.uoregon.edu or call 541-346-3024 for current hours and other admission information.

Links:

Oregon Folklife Network: https://ofn.uoregon.edu/

TAAP Program: https://ofn.uoregon.edu/programs/traditional_arts_apprenticeship_program.php

Museum of Natural and Cultural History: http://natural-history.uoregon.edu

Museum on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oregonnaturalhistory

 

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OREGON TRADITIONAL ARTS APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM (TAAP) – APPLICATIONS DUE APRIL 1st, 2019

The Oregon Folklife Network (OFN) is now accepting applications for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) for 2019-20. This cornerstone program offers traditional/folk master artists and culture keepers a $4,000 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their own communities—cultural, religious, or occupational groups, or tribes. The stipend supports master artists to pass on their knowledge, skills, and expertise to an apprentice of great promise, who is empowered through these lessons to continue carrying on and strengthening Oregon’s diverse cultural traditions.

We are thrilled to announce the 2018-19 TAAP awardees: traditional Irish singer, Brian Hart of Portland; hip-hop emcee, Michael “Mic” Crenshaw of Portland; traditional saddle-maker, Steve McKay of Burns; West African drummer and dancer, Alseny Yansane of Eugene; Zapotec Weaver, Francisco Bautista-Lopez of Sandy; Classical Bharatha Natyam Indian dancer, Jayanthi Raman of Portland; Indian Carnatic musician, Sreevidhya Chandramouli of Portland; and Cayuse/Nez Perce applique beadworker, Marjorie Kalama of Warm Springs.

Other examples of Oregon’s many traditional/folk arts include McKenzie River Drift Boat building, Southeast Asian dance, Norwegian cooking and baking, Northwest logger poetry, Native American basket weaving, Middle Eastern embroidery, Irish or old time fiddling, African-American gospel singing, rawhide braiding, Iranian storytelling, Andean instrument building, and more.

OFN encourages applications from Oregonians engaged in living cultural traditions emerging from their heritage or tribes. This program does not fund historic re-enactments, DIY revival crafts, or those who practice traditions that are not part of their own cultural heritage or community.   CONTACT US: Please contact us if you interested in applying or know someone that you want to recommend. Visit our website, ofn.uoregon.edu, or contact Latham Wood (ofn@uoregon.edu, 541-346-3820) for more information about your eligibility in the program. APPLICATIONS: TAAP guidelines and the TAAP application can be downloaded at the OFN website. Staff members are available to advise applicants about the application process. If you send us your draft application 2 weeks before the deadline, we can provide helpful feedback before your final submission.

DEADLINE: Applications are due at the OFN office by 5 pm, APRIL 1, 2019. Send your complete application package to Oregon Folklife Network, 242 Knight Library, 6204 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6204.

This program is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Oregon Arts Commission.  OFN is administered by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History (MNCH) and is supported in part by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Historical Society, the Oregon Cultural Trust, and the NEA. The Oregon Folklife Network works to increase public investment in cultural traditions and those who practice them.

About Oregon Folklife Network

Oregon Folklife Network (OFN) is administered by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon and is the state’s designated Folk and Traditional Arts Program. OFN is supported in part by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Cultural Trust, and National Endowment for the Arts. OFN works to increase public investment in cultural traditions and those who practice them.

About the Museum of Natural and Cultural History

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History enhances knowledge of Earth’s environments and cultures, inspiring stewardship of our collective past, present, and future. With collections representing millions of years and all of Earth’s continents, the museum is a center for international research on topics in natural history and anthropology. Museum exhibitions are open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for youths and seniors, and $10 for families (two adults and up to four youths). Reduced admission is available for visitors presenting Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. Admission is free to members and UO ID card holders. For general information call 541-346-3024.

Media Contact:

Kristin Strommer, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, kstromme@uoregon.edu, 541-346-5083

Links:

Oregon Folklife Network: https://ofn.uoregon.edu/

TAAP Program: https://ofn.uoregon.edu/programs/traditional_arts_apprenticeship_program.php

Museum of Natural and Cultural History: http://natural-history.uoregon.edu

Museum on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oregonnaturalhistory

2018 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program application now available, due April 1

We are currently accepting applications from master artists and their apprentices for our Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP). One of the Oregon Folklife Network’s cornerstone programs, TAAP assists master artists in teaching and passing on their living traditions to promising apprentices from the same cultural background. Master artists receive stipends to cover costs of focused, individualized training and a final public presentation. OFN hosts a biannual awards ceremony in Salem where legislators and government officials recognize master artists.

Download the application on our website and submit by April 1st.

Artists from a number of different traditions have participated in TAAP over the years. For a full list of participants, check out our Oregon Culture Keepers Roster – just type “TAAP” into the keyword search to see the full list. The 2017-2018 recipients are Palestinian embroiderer Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, horse trainer Tonya Rosebrook, Persian storyteller Azar Salehi, and Hanis Coos weaver Sara Siestreem.

OFN is honored to support these master artists in their efforts to keep and pass on their cultural traditions to the next generation. Keep your eye on our Vimeo and YouTube pages for upcoming interviews with these artists – and be sure to check out the interviews with some of our previous master artists while you wait!

Funding for TAAP comes from the National Endowment for the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts discipline and Oregon Arts Commission. The Oregon Community Foundation’s Fred W. Fields Fund provided further funding for our 2018-19 awardees. Additional support from the Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Cultural Trust and the University of Oregon makes this program possible.

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