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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.240.8, Connecticut Historical S ...
Tibetan Culture in Connecticut Bus Tour
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.240.8, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Tibetan Culture in Connecticut Bus Tour

Subject (Tibetan, born 1959)
Date2006 March 25
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.240.1-.9
DescriptionOn March 25, 2006, the Tibetan Culture in Connecticut bus tour visited members and places of the Tibetan community in Old Saybrook and Middletown.

2015.196.240.1: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue speaking to tour group in his family's meditation room, Old Saybrook

2015.196.240.2: born digital image showing Thapkey Tsering, president of the Tibetan Association of Connecticut, speaking to tour group in Dharma Jewel store, Old Saybrook

2015.196.240.3: born digital image showing tour group dining in Little Tibet restaurant, Middletown

2015.196.240.4: born digital image showing carved cabinet with lotus flowers, statues of deities, and offerings, in Jampa's family's meditation room, Old Saybrook

2015.196.240.5: born digital image showing close up of art and barley flour offerings for good wishes, in Jampa's family's meditation room, Old Saybrook

2015.196.240.6: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue speaking to tour group in his family's meditation room, Old Saybrook. His thangka painting of the deity Namkhai Nyingbo is on the wall.

2015.196.240.7: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue speaking to tour group in his family's meditation room, Old Saybrook, with barley flour offerings for good wishes

2015.196.240.8: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue speaking to tour group in front of the carved cabinet with lotus flowers, statues of deities, and barley flour offerings for good wishes, in his family's meditation room, Old Saybrook

2015.196.240.9: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue with members of tour group including Gannon Long (ICR staff), in his family's meditation room, Old Saybrook
NotesSubject Note: The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Institute for Community Research collaborated with Manchester Community College (MCC) on a cultural tourism project in 2004-2008. Each year, three or four day-long bus tours visited cultural events and artist studios in ethnic communities living in different parts of the state as a way for new audiences to experience and meet Connecticut’s ethnic and occupational communities. Project goals included 1) expanding awareness of unfamiliar art forms and heritage tourism assets, 2) encouraging access to little-known ethnic or occupational communities, 3) creating audience and artist interactions, 4) stimulating sales and commissions of traditional arts and foods, and 5) developing new partnerships with community organizations and artists. The tours were developed and led by the Connecticut state folk arts program director, Lynne Williamson along with artists from each community. The partnership with MCC ensured that the tours were advertised in the Credit-Free Catalogue each semester. Audiences for the tours were primarily members of the Older Adults Association, a core audience for MCC’s Credit-Free courses.

Each day-long bus tour included a visit to folk artists’ studios or shops to observe them producing or selling their work, while engaging with visitors in discussions on the history of their communities and the background of their art form. Tours stopped at related landmarks and/or restaurants in the artists’ neighborhoods, or attended a local community festival. The artists and community groups visited gave insightful presentations on their cultures and artistic traditions. Each tour included a traditional dinner or lunch where visitors could sit down to eat and talk with the artists and community members. CCHAP received an NEA Challenge America Cultural Tourism grant for a pilot series of bus tours in 2004. Subsequent project funders also included the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

On Saturday, March 25, 2006, the Tibetan Culture in Connecticut tour visited Old Saybrook, the center of Connecticut’s growing Tibetan community. At the community’s store Dharma Jewel, participants viewed Tibetan art work, met local Tibetan artists and musicians, and learned about the culture and history of Tibet from members of the Tibetan Association of Connecticut. The group also visited the home of local artists Jampa Tsondue and Kunga Choekyi where the family showed their meditation room with spiritual art work they created. Then the group traveled to Middletown for lunch at Little Tibet, the new restaurant and shop run by Phumba, an artist and trader from Tibet.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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