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2004 Grant Awards: Folk Arts Infrastructure

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Alabama Folklife Association, Inc.
Birmingham, AL
$20,000
To support the executive director's position and related costs. Responsibilities include creation of an Alabama Community Scholars Institute and the establishment of partnerships with federal and state organizations to document and present folk arts in various communities.

Alliance for California Traditional Arts
Fresno, CA
$35,000
To support the Traditional Arts Development Program. The program will consist of a mentoring and professional development; a gathering of organizations, artists, and funders; and partial support of the executive director and administrative assistant positions.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
Harrisburg, PA
$30,000
To support continuation of the Folk Arts Support Centers. The project will expand outreach into underserved regions of the state, and will develop strategies to increase public participation in and awareness of the folk and traditional arts.

Division of the Arts, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, & Tourism
Baton Rouge, LA
$25,000
To support Phase VII of Louisiana Voices. The program offers both high- and low-tech resources that provide teachers with folk arts-based lessons and strategies to meet Social Studies and English Language Arts content standards.

Florida Division of Historical Resources
Tallahassee, FL
$25,000
To support a statewide outreach coordinator's postion and related costs. Activities will include the Florida Folklife Apprenticeship Program, Folklife Days, the Exploring Florida Folkife library programs, and the Voices of Florida radio series.

Idaho Commission on the Arts
Boise, ID
$25,000
To support the Idaho Artistic and Cultural Traditions project. A lead folklorist, students, and community members will conduct surveys to identify and document underserved folk arts and artists in ten counties that comprise southwest Idaho.

Indiana University
Bloomington, IN
$25,000
To support Traditional Arts Indiana, a statewide program dedicated to the identification, documentation, presentation, and promotion of traditional arts and artists of Indiana. Activities will include public presentations and fieldwork but will focus primarily on an expanded apprenticeship program.

Institute for Community Research, Inc.
Hartford, CT
$20,000
To support a series of programs designed to expand documentation and presentation of Connecticut's folk arts. Traditional artists will receive technical assistance in documenting and archiving their traditional art forms, and community histories and community-based cultural programming will be developed.

Kentucky Arts Council
Frankfort, KY
$20,000
To support a folklorist position and related costs. Related activities will include a Community Scholars Program, an interactive Web site, and the development of a statewide folklife conference.

Maine Arts Commission
Augusta, ME
$20,000
To support the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program. The program will bring recognition to local artistic traditions and will honor and support master artists who continue to practice these traditions.

Maryland State Arts Council
Baltimore, MD
$25,000
To support the fourth year of Maryland Traditions. Through this project, folklorists are placed in cultural institutions that serve rural and underserved regions presently challenged by demographic and cultural shifts.

Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI
$30,000
To support the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and related costs. Funding for the program will also support research, documentation, and public presentations, including an exhibition and publication.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Baltimore, MD
$25,000
To support a traditional arts program associate position and related costs. Core activities include fieldwork to identify traditional artists and their needs; integration of fieldwork into other programs at Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and creation of links to allied field and funding resources.

Mississippi Arts Commission
Jackson, MS
$20,000
To support fieldworker positions and related costs. Four fieldworkers living in different regions of Mississippi, or in bordering states, will document and recruit traditional artists for the agency's folk arts apprenticeship and fellowship programs.

Museum of Western Colorado
Grand Junction, CO
$30,000
To support folklorist positions in western, eastern and southern Colorado. Activities include maintaining the statewide folk arts programs in education and cultural tourism, archiving 22 years of previous work, and planning the program's future infrastructure in collaborating with the Colorado Council on the Arts' overall planning process.

Nebraska Humanities Council
Lincoln, NE
$25,000
To support the Nebraska Folklife Network (NFN). Activities will include technical assistance to traditional artists, tradition bearers, cultural communities, and organizations; fieldwork in Vietnamese and Swedish communities; and the creation of two cultural educational traveling kits.

New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
Concord, NH
$20,000
To support expansion of the Learning Center component of the folklife Web site. Interactive educational activities will be based upon traditional music, words and images specific to craft and occupational traditions, maps featuring historic structures and traditional craft skills, and sample classroom projects.

New Mexico Arts
Santa Fe, NM
$25,000
To support the Folk Arts Apprenticeship and Community Fieldworker Network Programs. Practitioners for the apprenticeship program are sought in the course of the folk arts coordinator's fieldwork and with the assistance of trained lay folklorists or community scholars participating in the Community Fieldworker Network Program.

New York Folklore Society, Inc.
Schenectady, NY
$20,000
To support a folklore and education coordinator position and related costs. Activities will include folk arts education and professional training opportunities for folklorists, workshops for New York state educators, and a community scholar field school.

North Carolina Folklife Institute
Durham, NC
$25,000
To support a folklorist position and related costs. The folklorist will make selected folklife documentation accessible to the public, help public folklorists initiate and shape heritage tourism development in the state, and support public projects that have statewide impact.

North Dakota Council on the Arts
Bismarck, ND
$30,000
To support the statewide Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and related costs. The program supports 15 pairs of North Dakota folk artists and apprentices participating in an intensive one-on-one teaching/learning situation.

Ohio Arts Council
Columbus, OH
$20,000
To support continuation of the Ohio Folk Arts Initiative. Core activities will include fieldwork and documentation; continuation of the Ohio Heritage Fellowship Program; presentation of folk and traditional arts at the Cityfolk Festival; expansion and updating of the Web site; and upgrading and operation of the Cityfolk Folklife Resource Center.

Old Town School of Folk Music, Inc.
Chicago, IL
$25,000
To support the community programs manager position and related costs. Activities will include formation of an advisory panel of experts in the field of African-American music, and the pilot of new point-of-entry concerts to connect with new audiences.

Oregon Historical Society
Portland, OR
$30,000
To support continuation of a statewide multi-year Latino initiative. The program includes rural residencies in Latino communities and a series of educational workshops designed to increase cross-cultural communication, interaction, and understanding of Latino culture for teachers, students, and their communities.

Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Providence, RI
$20,000
To support the Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program and related costs. The program fosters the sharing and passing on of traditional skills within cultural communities and will pair 12 master-apprentice teams.

South Carolina Arts Commission
Columbia, SC
$25,000
To support continuation of the Heritage Corridor fieldwork coordinator position, the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Initiative and establishment of a Folklife & Education Initiative (FEI). The initiative will create long-lasting partnerships at the local and state level, and create models for folklife documentation efforts in the state.

South Dakota Arts Council
Pierre, SD
$20,000
To support a folklorist position and related costs. Related activities will include the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, a Traditional Textiles Exhibit, and the Missouri River Folklife Project.

Texas Folklife Resources
Austin, TX
$20,000
To support a folklorist position and related costs. Responsibilities include fieldwork and folk arts project planning with African-American and Mexican-American community-based organizations in the underserved counties of Brazoria and Hidalgo.

Vermont Folklife Center
Middlebury, VT
$25,000
To support continuation of a statewide Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and related costs. The apprenticeship program encourages the preservation of living traditional arts by funding master artists to work with apprentices in order to pass along time-honored skills and knowledge.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy
Charlottesville, VA
$25,000
To support continuation of the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program and related costs. The program will support nine apprenticeship teams, drawing from a diverse range of communities and involving a wide array of traditional arts and folkways.

Washington State Arts Commission
Olympia, WA
$35,000
To support a folk arts coordinator position and related costs. Responsibilities include the Folk Arts in the Parks Initiative that will develop programs connecting many of the state's 120 parks with local communities through concerts, festivals, exhibits, and demonstrations.

Wisconsin Arts Board
Madison, WI
$35,000
To support continuation and expansion of Wisconsin Folks. The project is an online curriculum for students, a resource for educators, and a hiring directory for artists, featuring traditional artists in segments written for both students and adults.

Total Leadership Initiatives grants: 32
Total Leadership Initiatives dollars: $800,000