The Oregon Folklife Network (OFN) is now accepting applications for its Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) for 2018. This program offers master traditional artists and culture keepers a $3,000 stipend to teach their art form to apprentices from their own communities, Tribes, cultural, religious, or occupational group. The stipend pays masters to pass on their knowledge, skills, and expertise to an apprentice of great promise, who is empowered through these lessons to continue carrying on Oregon’s traditions. Examples of Oregon’s many traditional folk arts include McKenzie River Drift Boat building, Southeast Asian dance, Norwegian cooking and baking, Northwest logger poetry, Native American basket weaving, Middle Eastern embroidery, Irish or old time fiddling, African-American gospel singing, saddle making and rawhide braiding for working cowboys, and more. Recent TAAP awardees have included an Iranian storyteller, a hip-hop artist, a western gear maker, and an Andean instrument maker. OFN encourages applications from Oregonians engaged in these kinds of living cultural traditions emerging from their particular heritage or Tribe. This program does not fund historic re-enactments, DIY revival crafts, or those who practice traditions that are not part of their own cultural heritage. CONTACT US FIRST: Please contact us first if you want to apply. Visit our website, ofn.uoregon.edu, or contact Brad McMullen (ofn@uoregon.edu, 541-346-3820) for more information about your eligibility in the program. APPLICATIONS: Application guidelines and questions can be downloaded at the OFN website: ofn.uoregon.edu/programs. Staff members are available to advise applicants and even help fill out applications. DEADLINE: Applications are due at the OFN office by 5 pm, MARCH 1, 2018. Send your complete application package to Oregon Folklife Network, 242 Knight Library, 6204 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6204. This program is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Oregon Arts Commission, and by a grant from the Fred W. Fields Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation. OFN is administered by the University of Oregon and is supported in part by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Historical Society, the Oregon Cultural Trust, and the NEA. The Oregon Folklife Network works to increase public investment in cultural traditions and those who practice them.
