(Klumaiyat-Roberta Joy Kirk of Warm Springs in ceremonial dress she sewed and beaded | Photo courtesy of Oregon Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program)
The University of Oregon’s Oregon Folklife Network has been awarded a $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant supports Oregon’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) 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.
Oregon Folklife Network is now accepting applications for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program 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 www.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 5pm on October 1 at the Oregon Folklife Network, 242 Knight Library, 6204 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6204. NOTE: This is NOT a postmark deadline.
Links:
Oregon Folklife Network: ofn.uoregon.edu
TAAP Program: ofn.uoregon.edu/programs/traditional_arts_apprenticeship_program.php
Museum of Natural and Cultural History: natural-history.uoregon.edu
Museum on Facebook: facebook.com/oregonnaturalhistory
Artist video 1: youtube.com/watch?v=s5v6LvHutek#action=share
Artist Video 2: youtube.com/watch?v=UCd0s45f13c#action=share