First Gathering of California Traditional Artists
June 6-8, 2001
Sacramento, California
Some of the masters & apprentices on the steps of the Sacramento Youth Hostel
For the first time since the reintroduction of the California Folk & Traditional Arts Master Apprenticeship Program in 1999, grant recipients gathered together to get to know each other and to share experiences. The historic gathering took place on June 6 and 7 in Sacramento. It was planned to coincide with the Joint Congress of the Arts, which the artists participated in following the gathering. ACTA organized the two-day gathering with support from the Fund for Folk Culture's California Traditional Arts Advancement Program.
Nineteen masters and apprentices from around California met at the Sacramento Youth Hostel at noon on Wednesday, June 6. After lunch and brief introductions, participants spent the afternoon and evening hours sharing and explaining their traditional arts.
Many folk and traditional artists working in the apprenticeship program have expressed concern that they were working in isolation and that few outside their families and communities were aware of their work. During the informal sessions of the gathering they discovered that they are not alone and that other traditional artists share similar issues and concerns, irrespective of art genre, ethnicity, or geographical location.
Grant recipients from the 1999-2000 round attending the conference were South Indian Carnatic vocal musician Asha Ramesh and her apprentice Roopa Mahadevan, from the San Jose area; North Indian Kathak Dancer Chitresh Das and his apprentice Jaiwanti Pamnani, from the North Bay Area; Kulintang musician Danongan "Danny" Kalanduyan and his apprentice Titania Buchholdt, from the Bay Area; Western Mono basketweaver Gladys McKinney and her apprentice Ruby Vargas, from the Central Valley; Hungarian bagpipe maker and musician Ferenc Tobak and his apprentice, Ferenc "Fero" Tobak, from Fort Bragg; Mexican ranchera musician Carmencristina Moreno, from Fresno; and Hmong embroiderer Chamy Thor, from Sacramento.
Grant recipients from the current year attending the conference were Kumeyaay singer Jon Mesa Cuero and his apprentice, Stan Rodriguez, from San Diego County; Mexican paper sculptor Rubén Guzmán, from Oakland; cowboy boot maker Luis Jovel and his apprentice Armando Torres, from Fresno; Chukchansi basketweaver Clara Charlie, from Porterville; and Mexican paper arts specialist and altar maker Herminia Albarrán Romero, from San Francisco.
The morning of the second day of the gathering, masters and apprentices joined with grantees of the CAC-Traditional Folk Arts Program for another meeting at the offices of the California Arts Council. This meeting was jointly organized by Amy Kitchener, ACTA Project Director, and CAC-TFAP administrator Theresa Harlan.
At this second meeting attendees listened to a panel discussion of strategies for sustaining traditional arts. Panelists were Sara Greensfelder of California Indian Basketweavers Association, Joel Jacinto of Kayamanan Ng Lahi Philippine Folk Arts, Ka'ala and Kaiwi Pang of Pacific Islander Community Council, and Eugene Rodriguez of Los Cenzontles Mexican Art Center
Panelists discussed their own experiences in organizing within traditional communities, the circumstances that brought their groups together, challenges faced, successes, and lessons that could be shared with others. Many in the audience also contributed to the discussion with questions and experiences of their own (read the panel presentations).
From noon Thursday to noon Friday, participants in the California Traditional Artists Gathering joined other arts advocates at the Joint Congress of the Arts presented by California Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (CALAA) at the Sheraton Grand Hotel and at the Capitol.
ACTA's participation at the California Traditional Artists Gathering and at the Joint Congress of the Arts was funded in part by the The Fund for Folk Culture's California Traditional Arts Advancement Program, with support from the James Irvine Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
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