November 26, 2001
Contact:
Amy Kitchener, Project Director
Phone: 559-237-9813
akitch@fresnoarts.org
Living Cultures Publication Celebrates California's Folk & Traditional Arts
Living Cultures is a new publication dedicated to exploring the vastness and beauty of California's diverse traditional arts terrain. Through informative articles, compelling photography, and an abundance of resources, the publishers aim to strengthen networks and stimulate greater appreciation and awareness of the many heritages of this state.
The launch of the prospectus issue was timed to coincide with the California Arts Council's "Year of the Arts - 2001" visibility campaign to increase public awareness of, and support for, the importance and impact of the arts in California. The state has dedicated the month of November to celebrating Traditional Folk Arts. And the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, the only statewide organization serving folk & traditional arts, has responded with the distribution of Living Cultures, containing articles and information ranging from the traditional Mexican altars of Herminia Romero, and the transmission of sacred Native Californian Kumeyaay "wildcat songs," to Bay Area cake decorating, all of which will carry interest throughout the year.
The arts visibility campaign has two simple messages: 1) The Arts are important to California - to its economy, to the education and job preparedness of our children, and to civic life in communities throughout the state; and 2) The Arts are everywhere - educating and informing the public about the breadth and depth of the arts in California.
Some folk and traditional arts, brought to California from other countries or regions, have taken root here to become interwoven with the state's cultural landscape and identity. Others have prospered on the more than one hundred tribal reservations and rancherias in this state. Cowboy poetry; Hmong reverse appliqué embroidery; Mexican corridos (ballads) and mariachi music; African American quilts; Japanese bonsai; Native American basketry, ceremonial regalia construction, and ritual music and dance; South Indian bharata natyam dance; western saddle making; Chinese qin instrumental music; Portugese fado singing; Native Hawaiian kahiko hula chant and dance; and Pilipino rondalla music ensembles are but a few of the many hundreds of distinctive types of traditional arts found in this tremendously diverse and culturally rich state.
Living Cultures is a co-publishing project of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts in Fresno, California; and Clapperstick Institute of Berkeley, California; with funding from the California Arts Council; National Endowment for the Arts; and the California Traditional Arts Advancement Program, a program of the Fund for Folk Culture, supported by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation. The publishers have produced this prospectus as an abbreviated preview of a magazine they plan to launch in fall 2002. They are currently seeking funding from foundations and patrons, commitments from advertisers, and the cooperation of cultural artistic and historical organizations and individuals.
Copies of the 12-page prospectus are available upon request: 559-237-9813 or info@actaonline.org
