The Master-Apprentice Artist Award provides direct support for master traditional artists living in Arizona to pass on art, culture, and heritage practices to apprentice learners.
Donor Name: Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA)
State: Arizona
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Award
Deadline: 05/01/2023
Size of the Grant: $5,000
Details:
The goal of this award is to strengthen the transmission of community-based traditions throughout the Southwestern United States. This award supports a master artist or tradition bearer to work with a qualified apprentice (or group of apprentices) to engage in a teaching-learning relationship that includes one-on-one mentorship and hands-on experience. Their highest priority is to support apprentices to learn from master artists within their own cultural traditions. Funds can be used to help cover artist fees, offset costs of raw materials and support any travel essential to the exchange. Traditional master artists and culture bearers receive a $5,000; apprentices receive $500.
Artists are first nominated by peers within their community, cultural institutions, apprentices, or by self-nomination. SFA determines which artists are invited to full application, based on their mastery of artform, their ability to describe how that form has been recognized by their cultural community, and their ability to share traditional knowledge.
Artists are first nominated by peers within their community, cultural institutions, apprentices, or by self-nomination. SFA then invites nominees to apply based on their mastery of artform, their ability to describe how that form has been recognized by their cultural community, and their ability to share traditional knowledge. Applicants include a wide variety of artists, including those working in traditions including, but not limited to:
- Handcrafts: weavers; basket makers; jewelers; makers of masks, ritual objects, textiles
- Occupational folklife: adobe makers, leather workers, ironworkers, foodways workers
- Oral traditions: storytellers, poets
- Performing arts: dancers, vocalists, musicians
Eligible Applicants
Applicants (master artists and apprentices) must reside in Arizona.
- The art form must be traditional in nature, as per SFA’s definition of traditional art.
- Applicants must be United States citizens, lawful permanent residents, or have permission from the U.S. Department of Immigration to work in the U.S.
- All applicants must have been full-time residents of Arizona for a minimum of one full year prior to applying and must remain residents of Arizona for the duration of the award year.
- Applicants must be at least 18 years of age.
- Practitioners are generally part of the same cultural community, with a focus on informally taught traditions rather than formal instruction or institutional education.
For more information, visit SFA.
