The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) works to “ensure that California’s future holds California’s past” by providing programs and services to support the state’s diverse living cultural heritage. ACTA cultivates the growth of traditional arts and culture through Stewardship in tending and nurturing California’s unique cultural landscape; Services to Artists; and Connecting people, resources and information.
What Are Traditional Arts?
The Alliance for California Traditional Arts work in five broad areas which are described below.
1. Providing direct resources to stimulate cultural conservation & growth
- Contracts of $3,000 support transmission of traditional skills
by master traditional artists to qualified apprentices
- A total of 97 contracts over 6 years have supported individual
artists from Siskiyou County to San Diego County in genres ranging
from cowboy saddlemaking to Kumeyaay sacred songs
- Bundled with the program is fieldwork where staff documents
artists’ work
- Each apprenticeship is shared publicly through exhibits, demonstrations,
and concerts
- Descriptions of past apprenticeships are available
here.
- Contracts up to $1,500 for artistic and organizational development
to individual artists and organizations
- 56 projects supported over
four rounds. Examples:
- Dumna Tribal Council (Auberry) organized their first “coming
out” ceremony in 50 years.
- Kalingas-North America Network (LA) held a gathering of elders
and recorded their tribal songs with support from a sound engineer
- Descriptions
of past participants are available
here.
- Grants of $5,000-$7,500 each for California non-profit organizations
to support exemplary projects in the traditional arts
- Thirty grants were made in the first funding cycle in 2005-2006
- Descriptions of past grantee’s projects are available
here.
Convenings
- ACTA has convened traditional artists, arts administrators, funders and
cultural workers in various venues over the past 5 years
- ACTA hosts a Biennial Traditional Artists Gathering in which apprenticeship pairs gather for 2 days to share their work, ideas, and concerns
2. Providing Information about Traditional Arts in California
- Contains information on ACTA programs, links to other organizations, funding information, calendar, features and reviews
- Goal as visibility and marketing tool for artists as well as an information service for the general public
- Included are master artists from ACTA's Apprenticeship Program.
- Entries include photo(s), bio, description of art form, contact
information, as well as audio and video samples
- Published on the new moon of each month (the lunar calendar being a common denominator for many traditional cultural activities)
- Disseminates quickly changing information (on funding, meetings, events, what’s new on ACTA website, etc.)
Database
- Approximately 4,000 entries, 300 that are expanded to include detailed
information about the artists, traditions, experience, etc.
- On-going commitment to add expanded entries on the artists and organizations served directly through ACTA’s programs
3. Advocacy > > Change
- Increasing resources for and awareness of the field (Government, private foundations, presenters, news media, etc.)
- Addressing issues around sustainable cultural life (legislation like Assembly Member Liu’s Korean rice cake protection)
- Involvement in Cultural Policy (i.e., creation of California Cultural Endowment)
- Advocacy for ACTA may range from supporting legislation affecting a specific tradition or cultural community to influencing editorial boards of major newspapers to cover traditional arts
4. Public Programs
Community Roots Performing Arts Series-Fresno (2003-2005)
- ACTA convened a consortia of community-based organizations engaged
in traditional arts in Fresno and sought funding to support their
activities:
- El Salvadorian folklorico dance classes and performances
- International residency/performances by Don Pedro Dimas family (Purepecha fiddlers) and Ballet Folklorico de Patzcuaro from Michoacan
- A concert celebrating the music of National Heritage Fellow, Carmencristina Moreno
- Laotian traditional dance classes and performances
- Hmong sacred funeral singing workshops and performances
Mariachi
Instructional Workshops, 2003-2006
- In partnership with Radio Bilingüe’s annual ¡Viva El Mariachi Festival!
- Artistic director, Nati Cano, a NEA National Heritage Fellow
- 300 participants from Western states
5. Special Initiatives
Grow out of strong synergistic partnerships, opportunities and/or needs impacting the field. Some current projects include:
Fresno Folklife Archives Initiative, 2004-2005
- Project to organize and house the collections of the former Fresno Arts Council Folklife Program, which over ten years, generated significant primary documentation of folklife activities in the San Joaquin Valley
- A major collection,“Textile Arts of Laos,” focuses on the cultural lives of Hmong, Mien, Lao, Lahu and Khmu Americans in the San Joaquin Valley. Media documentation includes approximately 6,000 color slides, 400 color photo prints with negatives, 25 audio cassettes, 91 mini-DV videotapes, and nine VHS videotapes.
- Other collections include: Lao music, Mexican holiday celebrations, Luis Jovel cowboy bootmaking, Mono basket weavers, Armenian folklife, Voices of Youth, Kenny Hall and others.
Bay Area Cultural Mapping Initiative, 2006 (in development)
- The Cultural Mapping Initiative seeks to provide a deeper understanding of, and identify potential strategies to strengthen support for, the artistic production, and infrastructure in communities of culturally specific dance artists in the 11-county Bay Area. The Cultural Mapping Initiative will build information on the practice, resources and challenges for culturally specific dance artists around the topics of: artistic creation, process and aesthetics; type of activities and needs; support systems; engagement with communities, audiences and the public; and financial and non-financial resources.
- ACTA will serve as lead member of a consortia of partners including: World Arts West, Fund for Folk Culture, LINC, and New England Foundation for the Arts to implement the project.
- The outcomes include a published report recommending strategies for support and extensive primary data that can be shared widely about practitioners.
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ACTA's Offices and Staff
Fresno Office
(main mailing address)
1245 Van Ness Avenue
Fresno, CA 93721
Phone: (559) 237-9812
Fax: (559) 237-9814
San Francisco Office
(mailing address)
The Presidio
P.O. Box 29096
San Francisco, CA 94129
(physical address)
1007 General Kennedy Avenue, Suite 211
San Francisco, 94129
ACTA Staff
Amy Kitchener, Executive Director
(559) 237-9813
(415) 346-8700
akitch@actaonline.org
Sherwood Chen, Associate Director
(415) 346-3800
sherwood@actaonline.org
Lily Kharrazi, Living Cultures Grants Program Manager
(415) 346-5200
lilyk@actaonline.org
Suzanne Hildebrand, Administrative Coordinator
The New Moon Editor
(559) 237-9812
stoler@actaonline.org
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ACTA Board of Directors
Robert Arroyo, V.P. of Finance & Administration
Retired Instructor of Political Science & Chicano/Latino
Studies, Fresno City College;
Retired Administrator, Fresno City College
Kingsburg, CA
Melanie Beene
Executive Director, Community Initiative Funds, San Francisco Foundation
San Francisco, CA
Jo Farb Hernandez, Secretary
Director, Natalie
and James Thompson Art Gallery, School of Art and Design, San Jose
State University
Principal, Curatorial and Museum Management Services
Director, SPACES
Watsonville, CA
Joel Jacinto, V.P. of Governance
Executive Director, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans
Los Angeles, CA
Sojin Kim, Ph.D.
Curator, History Department, Natural
History Museum of Los Angeles County
Los Angeles, CA
Amy Kitchener (ex officio)
Executive Director, ACTA
Fresno, CA
Frank LaPena
Professor Emeritus, American Indian Studies, CSU Sacramento;
Traditional
Maidu dance master; Visual Visual Artist
Sacramento, CA
Malcolm Margolin
Founder and Publisher, Heyday Books
Executive Director, Heyday Institute
Berkeley , CA
Libby Maynard
Co-founder and Executive Director, Ink
People Center for the Arts
Chike Nwoffiah, V.P. of External Development
Executive Director, Oriki Theatre
Mountain View, CA
Peter Pennekamp, Executive Director
Humboldt Area Foundation
Bayside, CA
Charlie Seemann, Board President
Executive Director, Western Folklife Center
Elko, NV
Daniel Sheehy, Ph.D.,
CEO, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Washington, D.C.
Deborah Wong, Ph.D.
Professor of Music
University of California, Riverside
Honorary
Bess Lomax Hawes
Former Director, Folk & Traditional Arts Program, National Endowment for the Arts (retired)
Woodland Hills, CA
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Keep Informed
If you are interested in staying current with ACTA’s work complete the form on the Contact Us page. You can also stay informed on folk and traditional arts news from around the state by subscribing to The New Moon, ACTA’s monthly e-newsletter. Visit the New Moon webpage to learn more.
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Website Suggestions
Please contact us about the kinds of information and articles you wish to see on this website. Short articles, reviews, and announcements about folk and traditional arts in California are all welcomed and, subject to editing, may be posted on the website.
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ACTA's Funders
Fresno Arts Council Community Enrichment Program
Copyright and Credits
| © 2000-2005 Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) all rights reserved Software, documentation, electronic text and image files, audio and video clips, and other materials are protected by copyright laws and may be covered by other restrictions as well. ACTA retains all rights, including copyright, data, image, text, and any other information contained in these files. Copyrights and other proprietary rights in the material on this website may also subsist in individuals and entities other than, and in addition to, ACTA. ACTA expressly prohibits the copying of any protected materials on this website, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws.
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