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Scroll down to read or go directly to: Cartonería Artists featured at Fruitvale Día de los Muertos Celebration City of Los Angeles Traditional Arts Program Moves Mayan Textile Art: Collections of the Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya Heyday Books Celebrates 30th Anniversary Advocacy Americans for the Arts Unveils Congressional Arts Report Card Proceeds from the license plate sales will benefit the California Arts Council (CAC)
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WHAT'S NEWSubscribe to The New Moon, ACTA's Monthly E-Newsletter. See the latest edition of The New Moon ACTA Director to Speak at Symposium on Intangible Cultural Heritage in BeijingThis week ACTA Executive Director, Amy Kitchener, will travel to Beijing to speak at the International Symposium on the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage organized by the Chinese Academy of Arts. Kitchener is one of 25 overseas participants sponsored by the Chinese Government who will join 40 Chinese representatives at the meeting. Her paper, “Strategies for Supporting and Preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage in California,” will provide an overview of ACTA’s work to help sustain community-based expressions of tradition. A special focus on ACTA’s statewide apprenticeship program, which provides $2500 awards to individual masters of diverse traditions to teach experienced apprentices from six months to one year, will share an important national statewide model in this international context. In the next New Moon, Kitchener will share her impressions of the symposium and Beijing. Cartonería Artists featured at Fruitvale Día de los Muertos CelebrationMari Pongkhamsing, Archivist/Special Projects Coordinator, ACTA
Kim Alcala’s altar entitled “Color, Creatures, and Beauty” which
Marcus Cordero’s altar entitled “Desaparecidas” dedicated to the
Cartonería bride skeletons by Tara Ray from her altar entitled Altars are traditionally set up in people's homes, honoring friends or relatives who have recently died. Guzmán's students dedicated their altars to important people in their lives who had passed away but many of the artists also used their public displays to convey contemporary concerns. The artists dedicated altars not only to departed parents and friends but also to women who had disappeared from the Mexico-Texas border region, to struggling low wage workers, and to victims of youth violence. Tara Ray, an artist who used cartonería for the first time in this project, created a pair of bride skeletons and a pair of groom skeletons as her centerpiece. She dedicated her work to the ideal of "equal rights for all" and used her altar to remember victims of hate crimes. Her cartonería sculptures depicting gay and lesbian marriages conveyed her hope for civil rights. All of the altars were very moving because the artists dedicated their work to people and issues that were deeply meaningful to them. In addition to cartonería sculptures, the altars at the Fruitvale festival included many other traditional offerings. Flowers, especially yellow marigolds were abundant. Fruit and pan de muertos (bread of the dead) was offered so that the spirits of the visiting dead could consume the essence of the food. Papel picado banners (Mexican cut paper), paper flowers, photographs of the deceased and of favorite saints, and candles also adorned the altars. In these altars traditional elements blended with contemporary interpretations to create beautiful displays which thousands in the community enjoyed. View a gallery of photographs taken by Mari Pongkhamsing at the festival. City of Los Angeles Traditional Arts Program MovesThe Traditional Arts Program of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department (CAD) has moved from the Craft and Folk Art Museum, to the California Traditional Music Society (CTMS), a CAD facility. The services of the program, including the L.A. Treasures Award program, workshops, and the LAFolkArts email listserv, will continue through CTMS. Lisa Richardson remains the program director and will maintain office hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. New contact information for the program: Lisa Richardson, Traditional Arts Program Director Physical address: 16953 Ventura Blvd., Encino CA Mayan Textile Art: Collections of the Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya
Mari Pongkhamsing, Archivist/Special Projects Coordinator, ACTA The Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts is presenting an exhibit called Mayan Textile Art: Collections of the Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya at the Presidio Officer’s Club in San Francisco. The exhibit features contemporary Mayan textiles from Chiapas, Mexico, and Guatemala, showing how the art of weaving demonstrates the continuity of Mayan culture across centuries. The exhibit displays contemporary Mayan blouses, or huipiles, with brightly colored patterns which combine traditional and modern weaving and embroidery techniques. Photographs show how a traditional Mayan weaver creates designs using a back strap loom which is anchored to a tree and encircles the weaver’s waist. Mothers teach their daughters how to thread the loom and add colored threads to warp and weft to create brocade designs Weavers still use traditional materials such as coyuche (a brown colored cotton) and the fibers from the desert agave plant. They also use natural dyes including indigo, Brazil wood, and cochineal (an insect that makes a magenta colored dye). When the Spanish introduced new materials and techniques during the colonial period weavers began using wool and learned cross-stitch embroidery. Textile artists have also incorporated chemical dyes and factory-made threads into their work. The exhibit also explains how the weaving process is understood in Mayan cosmology in which the process of weaving is a metaphor for birth and creation. Women tie a back strap loom to a tree which is symbolic of the “divine maternal tree” at the center of the universe and the rope that connects the tree to the loom is called “the umbilical cord.” The opening and closing the loom makes a sound called a “heartbeat” and the movements of the weaver are like the contractions of a woman giving birth. The exhibit demonstrates how women are valued as artists and creators and illustrates the ways that textile artists have kept an ancient culture alive. The show runs through January 16, 2005, Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and admission is free. It compliments the Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya exhibit featured at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco’s Legion of Honor through January 2, 2005. A free shuttle runs between the two exhibits every half hour on weekends between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. For more information see the Presidio of San Francisco's web page. Heyday Books Celebrates 30th AnniversaryThis year, Heyday Books celebrates thirty years of deepening appreciation for the culture and history of California through its publications. Marking this anniversary is a great change for Heyday Books: the independent publisher has merged with its nonprofit wing, the Clapperstick Institute, to become Heyday Institute, completing its transition to a full-fledged 501 (c)(3) nonprofit enterprise. Malcolm Margolin, a member of ACTA’s founding board of directors, founded Heyday Books in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed East Bay Out, a quirky, personal, affectionate guide to the natural history of the hills and bay shore around Berkeley and Oakland. Today, Heyday’s fifteen employees work with zest, creativity, integrity, and a sense of adventure to produce about two dozen books a year. In these past thirty years, Heyday has published over one hundred books and two successful magazines, News from Native California and Bay Nature, and the company has taken a lead role in dozens of prominent public education programs throughout the state. Read more about Heyday Books 30th Anniversary and its many publications and projects by visiting the Heyday Books website. Several events celebrating 30 years have taken place this month, but there’s one more coming up: Celebrate with Heyday Books! Malcolm Margolin, with Laura Cunningham, Ernest Siva, Frank LaPena, Cindi Alvitre, Greg Sarris, and L. Frank Manriquez. Los Angeles Public Library Central Branch, Heyday Books New Publication - Precious Cargo: California Indian Cradle Baskets and Childbirth Traditions Brian Bibby, Afterword by Craig D. Bates Long before the invention of the baby buggy, Native Americans had designed and utilized a light, wearable vessel to carry their infants and young children. Born out of necessity, these baby baskets allowed mothers to use both hands while foraging for food or doing other work, provided security and comfort to the baby, and were objects of stunning art as well. Precious Cargo: California Indian Cradle Baskets and Childbirth Traditions is a unique and alluring history of the baby basket in Native Californian cultures. It includes dozens of black-and-white photographs as well as color photographs of thirty-two cradle baskets that were recently commissioned by the Marin Museum of the American Indian to be included in an exhibition that will travel to galleries and museums throughout California. Author Brian Bibby provides a historical and cultural background for the Native Californian cradle basket, including interviews with living basketmakers who maintain the tradition. Precious Cargo also includes information on other Native American childbirth traditions, covering topics from fertility through pregnancy and birth. To purchase a copy of Precious Cargo visit the Heyday Books website. AdvocacyAmericans for the Arts Unveils Congressional Arts Report CardThe first ever “report card” for US Congress members giving an assessment of their support for 2003-04 arts-related bills and issues was recently published by Americans for the Arts' Action Fund. Nationally, support for increases to the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is increasing. California's delegation averaged a “B” grade – the national average – and tied with Washington state for a 17th rank. In determining grades, the most weight was given to members' votes on the proposed budget increases for the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), although five other bills were considered. Additionally, official positions requesting collegial support for arts-related issues and membership in the Congressional Arts Caucus were also considered. Grades may be impacted by non-votes which may be caused by legitimate reasons for a member's absence during a vote. Six California Congress members scored an A+ (100%), including: Susan Davis (CD 53), Tom Lantos (CD 12), Barbara Lee (CD 9), Robert Matsui (CD 5), Linda Sanchez (CD 39), and Adam Schiff (CD 29). Congressman Schiff served as the Chair of the Joint Committee of the Arts while serving in the California State Legislature. The report card below shows the California delegation.
* indicates that the member missed two or more arts-related votes To read a pdf file of the full report visit the Americans for the Arts website. |
