This year OFN welcomed University of Oregon graduate employees Lillian DeVane and Yosser Saidane. Thank you for your work in supporting our programs! Former OFN graduate employee and intern Iris Teeuwen returned as a program specialist, and focused on streamlining the Oregon Culture Keepers Roster, one of our core programs. Olivia Wilkinson joined the OFN… Continue reading
by Riki Saltzman, Folklorist, High Desert Museum/Folklore Specialist, Oregon Folklife Network During the weekend of May 14-15, 2022, the High Desert Museum featured three programs with culture keepers from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Lake County, and Grant County. The culmination of nearly two years of documenting traditions in the High Desert and around… Continue reading
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… Continue reading
OFN welcomes Deana Dartt, PhD (Coastal Chumash and Mestiza), and Founding Director of Live Oak Consulting as OFN’s Campus Affiliate. Descending from the indigenous people of the Californias, Dartt’s scholarly and professional work strive to address the incongruities between public understanding, representation and true acknowledgement of Native peoples, their cultures, histories and contemporary lives. She… Continue reading
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 January 21, 2022 for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) for projects in 2022. The program offers… Continue reading
After another unpredictable year, we at Oregon Folklife Network are grateful for the generous support that keeps our doors open. The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially devastating to folk and traditional arts. Artists lost essential income as craft inventories waned with supply chains, and performance venues closed or limited operations. Traditional practices that thrive in community remain threatened by isolation and loss of culture bearers, individuals who have been pillars in their community’s cultural vitality.
During this time of extreme need among our constituents, OFN’s doors stay open to serve. Despite downsizing operations, we increased our funding opportunities for artists and administered a new series for master artists to share their traditions and stories with audiences hungry for interaction. Linking arms with institutional partners, OFN reached across the state to maintain satellite offices in Bend and Ontario, mentoring local organizations in the Willamette Valley and Coast who innovated to safely bring audiences together and provide critical funds to artists and their communities.
Traditional practices and expressions have survived generations of change and upheaval because they are dynamic, integral, and treasured. Traditional artists are community role models of resiliency, actively expressing their cultural past in the present moment where time-honored wisdom comforts and helps during hardship. Across Oregon’s many cultural communities and Tribes, one modest value connects them all: to do good work in a good way. We at OFN invite you to commit to that value in 2022, and help us support the exceptional traditional arts practiced in exceptionally courageous ways in every part of Oregon.
Your donation to OFN directly supports the work of traditional artists in Oregon communities and Tribes. Every gift is a commitment to the cultural vitality of Oregon.
All donations are tax-deductible and you can double your gifts for free by making a matching gift to the Cultural Trust and claiming your cultural tax credit! Will you make a gift to help Oregon’s cultural communities thrive? Any amount, whether it be a one-time gift or a monthly donation, will help us meet our goal of $5,000 before the end of the year.
From the entire OFN family, thank you for your interest in what we do.
Sincerely,
Emily West Hartlerode
Interim Director
Oregon traditional artists who would like to be considered for the Traditional Arts Recovery Program may self-nominate between now and Tuesday, Aug. 31. Administered by the Oregon Folklife Network in partnership with the Oregon Arts Commission, the Traditional Arts Recovery Program will provide stipends of $5,000 to 15 Oregon traditional artists for the creation of… Continue reading
As part of OFN’s statewide survey, graduate students from UO’s Folklore and Public Culture Program shadow professional researchers in the field. This serves OFN’s broader mission to educate, train, and prepare the next generation of public folklorists. Read their reflections on conducting fieldwork during the pandemic. by Robert Bishop & Taylor Burby Robert: This internship… Continue reading
by Robert Bishop This fall, OFN’s folklife survey will travel to the southwestern Oregon counties of Josephine, Jackson, and Douglas and to the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. Fieldwork in the region will begin in September and help identify artists for the Culture Keepers Roster as well as organizations for next year’s… Continue reading
by Madison Howard We are pleased to announce the Oregon Library Services and Technology Act Program awarded OFN grant funds for our Equitable Access to All Oregon Culture Keepers project. The award will fund several exciting projects related to our Culture Keepers Roster. With the newly secured funds, OFN will initiate an overhaul of our… Continue reading
