The Southern New England Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program seeks master traditional artists in Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts who want to teach their art form to an apprentice from their community in one of the other states. Now in its ninth year, the program is designed to foster the sharing of traditional (folk) artistic skills and cultural knowledge through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a master artist to a student/apprentice. The Program creates this opportunity specifically for individuals with a common heritage.

Folk or traditional arts are those artistic practices that have an occupational, geographic, ethnic, community, or family base, and are shared and understood by all as part of that community's aesthetic heritage. The learning process is informal, takes place over a long period of time, and is passed down from generation to generation.

Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts share a number of ethnic and occupational communities with a common history of immigration and residence in the region. The program encourages the transmission of traditional arts knowledge, links artists to members of their ethnic or occupational group in other locations, adds to the regional documentation of folk artists and their communities, and enhances public activities in ethnic and occupational communities shared by the three states.

Program apprenticeships take place each year from November to the following June. During this time master and student meet regularly, usually twice or more each month. At the end of the training period, each apprenticeship pair presents the results of its learning process to a public audience, either in a formal program or at a community event. For Program Guidelines and selection criteria, please see the application form.

Project Goals:
To promote teaching and learning of traditional arts for education and cultural conservation, by:

• Pairing master artists with qualified students, to pass on important artistic skills through the classic apprenticeship model of regular, informal but intensive one-on-one learning.
• Exchanging master artists across state boundaries, to foster cross-fertilization as they visit members of their ethnic group in other states to present their work and stimulate new learning within the group.

To strengthen existing community festivals, activities, and events by encouraging the master/apprentice pairs to perform or demonstrate the results of their cooperative learning at these events.

To develop a wider regional network and roster of excellent master traditional artists.

To benefit artists by providing them with materials created during project documentation. Copies of photographs, video or audio tapes, and written descriptions can be used by the artists to create educational or promotional products.

Program Partners
The program is a collaboration among the three statewide folk arts programs in Southern New England, located at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, the in Providence, and the in Boston. Contact information for each Program partner appears on page 2 of the Program Guidelines.

Primary funding for the Program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, along with the Program partners.

Participating Artists
Please see descriptions of artists who have participated in Years 1-8, and the complete list of apprenticeships from Years 1-9.

The Program welcomes inquiries from traditional artists in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts who may wish to apply. Interested master or apprentice candidates should contact the Folk Arts Program in their state, or Program Coordinator Lynne Williamson at

Audiences
The program reaches both specific communities and the general public. In nine completed years, sixty-six apprenticeships have taken place, with a total of two hundred seventeen artists participating. The required presentations by each apprenticeship team help to inform audiences about traditional arts and the apprenticeship model of transmission of cultural knowledge, and the communities gain a wider recognition for their artists, especially when they present their work in another state. Some events have been in small local settings while others had attendance figures of over 300 (Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford MA, Central Connecticut State University International Festival in New Britain CT, Laotian and Cambodian New Year celebrations, Jacob’s Pillow dance presentation in Becket, MA, Old Songs and Champlain Valley Festivals in NY and VT, Mohegan Intertribal Social in Uncasville CT). Since 2005 the Lowell Folk Festival has featured several masters from the program, highlighting their role through interpretive panels and stage introductions. 2007 activities reached new audiences through festivals in Providence and Farmington CT, rural gatherings in CT and RI, and television viewers in Norwich CT. Participating artists often generate wider public attention in a variety of ways: this year three apprenticeship groups (Franco and rural Yankee) have developed new musical repertoire and active performance partnerships. Program Coordinator Lynne Williamson has given presentations at AFS and the Urban Artists Initiative conference in 2001, the Building Healthy Communities conference and AFS in 2002, several festivals and events in 2003, and ICR’s national conference in June 2004, often accompanied by program participants who are eloquent in their description of the learning process.

View pictures from the 2005-6 Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program