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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.249.35, Connecticut Historical ...
Passing It On: Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program - Exhibit Displays
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.249.35, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Passing It On: Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program - Exhibit Displays

Subject
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Subject (Assyrian)
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Subject (Greek)
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Subject (Tuscarora/Choctaw)
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Subject (born 1951)
Subject (Somali Bantu)
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Date2018 March
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.249.1-.35
DescriptionImages of the exhibit "Passing It On: Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program," on view at the Connecticut Historical Society from January to March 2018.

2015.196.249.1: born digital image of Finnish birch bark woven ornament by Elaine Moe

2015.196.249.2: born digital image of Somali Bantu basket making display

2015.196.249.3: born digital image of Finnish wood carving display

2015.196.249.4: born digital image of relief woodcarvings by Ritva Autio, Bob Josephson, and Jack Smiley

2015.196.249.5: born digital image of cordwaining display featuring handmade shoes by Daphne Board and Lisa Davidson

2015.196.249.6: born digital image of woven Tibetan carpets woven by Tentso Sichoe and Tseyang Lhamo

2015.196.249.7: born digital image showing Tibetan carpet weaving display

2015.196.249.8: born digital image showing Assyrian knotted lace display featuring artwork by Florence Betgeorge and Sharokin Betgevargiz

2015.196.249.9: born digital image showing Assyrian knotted lace by Florence Betgeorge

2015.196.249.10: born digital image showing Assyrian knotted lace by Florence Betgeorge

2015.196.249.11: born digital image showing carved and painted lettering on Vermont green slate, by Jesse Marsolais

2015.196.249.12: born digital image showing carving tools used by Jesse Marsolais

2015.196.249.13: born digital image showing decorative woodworking display featuring carvings by Dimitrios Klitsas, Leslie Dockeray, and Maria Adams

2015.196.249.14: born digital image showing Mohegan pottery display, featuring work by Elaine Thomas and Brenda Hill

2015.196.249.15: born digital image showing Mohegan pottery by Elaine Thomas and Brenda Hill

2015.196.249.16: born digital image showing wampum shell, beads, pendant, and pipes made by Allen Hazard and Josh Carter

2015.196.249.17: born digital image showing Tibetan thangka paintings display

2015.196.249.18: born digital image showing Tibetan thangka painting by Tsering Yangchen

2015.196.249.19: born digital image showing Ukrainian pysanky written by Paul Luniw and Carol Kostecki

2015.196.249.20: born digital image showing Finnish Birch bark weaving display

2015.196.249.21: born digital image showing Eldrid Arntzen’s Norwegian rosemaling

2015.196.249.22: born digital image showing displays of Norwegian rosemaling by Eldrid Arntzen, Heather Thuesatd, and Rebecca Wilhelmsen (near), and Finnish woven birchbark by Elaine Moe, Katrina Bousquet, Susan Coupe, and Annaliisa Brassard (far)

2015.196.249.23: born digital image showing outside of “Passing It On” exhibit

2015.196.249.24: born digital image showing shells used in Mohegan pottery making

2015.196.249.25: born digital images showing detail of woodcarving made by Maria Adams

2015.196.249.26: born digital images showing detail of woodcarving made by Leslie Dockeray

2015.196.249.27: born digital image showing Assyrian knotted lace earrings made by Sharokin Betgevargiz

2015.196.249.28: born digital image of detail of Tibetan woven carpet by Tentso Sichoe

2015.196.249.29: born digital image of shoes handmade by Lisa Davidson

2015.196.249.30: born digital image showing cordwaning tools

2015.196.249.31: born digital image showing shoes handmade by Daphne Board

2015.196.249.32: born digital image showing closeup of wampum and cedar pipes carved by Allen Hazard and Josh Carter

2015.196.249.33: born digital image showing a Finnish woodcarving made by Ritva Autio and a weaving by Finnish apprentices

2015.196.249.34: born digital image showing a detail of a thangka painting of the deity of music, representing harmony, by Tsering Yangchen

2015.196.249.35: born digital image showing a detail of a Tibetan thangka painting of the Wheel of Life, painted by Jampa Tsondue
NotesSubject Note: A unique regional program marked twenty years of heritage education activities with a new exhibit at the Connecticut Historical Society. "Passing It On: Traditional Arts Apprenticeships" was on view from January 19, 2018 to March 10, 2018. The exhibit displayed the work of mentor artists and apprentices from the broad range of ethnic and occupational groups that have participated over the years. Photographs of the artists and their artistic process, quotes relating their experiences and the outcomes of their work, and demonstrations and performances accompanied the exhibit.

Over its first twenty years the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program has supported 142 accomplished artists to teach a folk or traditional art form to qualified students through the classic apprenticeship model of regular, informal but intensive one-on-one learning over several months, even years. This long-term learning reflects the time it takes to master the often difficult techniques of these deeply rooted art forms. The process encourages close interaction with the highly skilled teaching artist, who transmits not only the artistic skills but also the stories, background, values, and cultural uses of the tradition. More than 464 artists, both mentor artists and apprentices, have participated. The Apprenticeship Program receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Connecticut Office of the Arts/DECD and is a partnership with the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht in Rhode Island.

An initiative of the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at CHS, the Apprenticeship Program connects highly skilled exemplars of a folk or traditional art form with qualified students to teach artistic techniques and cultural knowledge through the apprenticeship model of regular, informal, intensive long-term learning. The program knits together artists from the same ethnic or occupational group living in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or Connecticut to share traditions and stimulate new learning. The Program also strengthens community festivals, activities and events by encouraging mentor/apprentice teams to perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning at events in each state. These public presentations enhance understanding of the artists, art forms, histories, narratives, and sense of place that distinguish the region and its communities.

Folk and traditional arts express a common aesthetic well known and often beloved within a cultural group. Visual, performance, and occupational artistic activities are treasured, shared, passed down, and taught within families and communities as a way to sustain traditional practices and express identity and cultural heritage. Sometimes these traditions have been continued in America after dying out in their original homeland; others are in danger of disappearing altogether, taking with them invaluable cultural knowledge.

Cultural arts taught through the Program have a serious purpose and function within a community’s life, and real-world applications often arise out of the apprenticeships. Students have gone on to start their own businesses in boatbuilding and stone inscription carving, develop professional singing careers, organize Irish music sessions and dances, repair Laotian temple buildings and statues, and design shoes for relatives’ problem feet. The Tibetan community uses a butter sculpture made during one apprenticeship for Buddhist spiritual ceremonies. Longstanding family traditions in Lebanese liturgical singing and Malian drumming been strengthened with a new generation of performers. A Finnish group in eastern Connecticut has re-energized several traditional practices, building a working sauna at their community hall, developing a weaving cooperative, training folk musicians, and reviving a form of woodcarving that has been nearly lost in Finland.

The exhibit opening reception on February 1 featured Lebanese singing, Portuguese accordion playing, Albanian dance, Somali Bantu basket weaving, Assyrian lace making, and decorative woodcarving. During a program on February 17, renowned artist Paul Luniw, parish priest at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Church in Terryville, instructed children and adults in the art of pysanky, traditional Ukrainian egg decorating. The work of masters and apprentices on display in the exhibit included hand-crafted shoes, Mohegan pottery, Tibetan painting and carpet weaving, stone inscription carving, Native American wampum carving, and more. An open house on March 10 presented Irish music and dance, Mexican Mariachi music, Tibetan carpet weaving and painting, and Norwegian rosemaling – plus a book signing with Tom Pich and Barry Bergey, authors of a book on America’s National Heritage Fellows, exemplary traditional artists from across the United States, three of whom are in the exhibit as teachers and two of whom performed at this event. The exhibit and programming were made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Connecticut Office of the Arts, and the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation.

Featured Artists:
Allen Hazard (RI) with Joshua Carter (CT) – Wampum Carving, 2008-2009: This apprenticeship brought together a Narragansett and a Pequot artist, sharing a centuries-old tradition that holds deep spiritual and cultural meaning for Southern New England native communities. Not only did Allen Hazard teach Josh Carter a new skill that he can now use in his own artistic work, but both artists crafted beautiful wooden pipes inlaid with wampum. The red cedar came from the swamps of Narragansett country and the shell from Rhode Island beaches. Adding wampum to the curved surfaces of the pipe was very difficult, but creating this piece served as a healing project for Allen while his daughter was very ill. Allen and Josh presented their pipes, along with wampum medallions made for the occasion, to the leaders of the Pequot and Narragansett nations - an unusual meeting of these former historical enemies and a great honor for the artists. Allen lit his pipe for the first time in a ceremony at the Narragansett community powwow in 2010.

“I hope to be able to learn as much as time allows, understanding that only the Creator gives anyone the ability. I hope to be able to bring this tradition back to my nation – the Pequot community has not had a wampum artisan for as long as I can remember. If I am able to learn this, then it will not be lost within our tribe.” - Josh Carter


Jampa Tsondue with Tsering Yangchen (CT) – Tibetan Thangka Painting, 2010-2011: Religious painting holds great importance in Tibetan Buddhism. Vast stores of spiritual knowledge and doctrine are written in books housed in monasteries. Paintings illustrate these texts by depicting central figures and deities, stories of their lives, as well as charts of medical knowledge and elements of doctrine. Tibetan Buddhism practices visualization as a way to transform the self, to "identify with" Buddha and other deities, and to work toward enlightenment by bringing principles of wisdom and compassion into one's life. By viewing and meditating deeply upon a painting, one's own character can become imbued with the qualities of the figure represented. Both lay people and lamas commission paintings for devotional purposes as well as for aiding health or for teaching Buddhist doctrine.

Jampa Tsondue apprenticed in traditional Tibetan thangka painting with monks at the Gyudmed Tantric Monastery in India where his family fled after the takeover of Tibet in 1959, the year he was born. He helped the monks with paintings, murals, and restoration of old art works, and they recreated 41 thangkas for the Dalai Lama's collection. In 1992, Jampa was chosen by lottery to come to America, settling in Old Saybrook.

Jampa began teaching his daughter this art form when she was a teenager and the apprenticeship took place during her senior year of high school. Creating a thangka requires several steps, all done by hand. Jampa showed Yangchen how to prepare the canvas by stretching cotton on a bamboo frame, apply several coats of chalk or clay gesso to the cloth, and rub the smooth side of a conch shell over it to make the surface like paper. Next they sketched the design in ink as laid out precisely by Buddhist texts. Yangchen learned to apply colors one at a time using pigments of natural minerals crushed and mixed with water and herbs, sometimes with a little glue. She added a variety of subtle shading and toning techniques throughout her painting, along with outlining details and facial features. Together they carefully applied and burnished 24-carat gold paint to create patterns on clothes or ornaments.

"I’ve always wanted to get back in touch with my culture and to reconnect with my Tibetan roots, so I asked my dad to be my mentor. My dad and I, we’re a good team, I think, because he’s very honest and so am I. He teaches me a lot. We help each other connect more, too, within ourselves. We kind of create more dialogue because I’ll ask him questions and he has no choice but to answer me. We get to know each other, too, because I’ll understand, ‘Oh, this is how my father communicates.’" - Tsering Yangchen


Eldrid Arntzen (CT) with Heather Thuestad and Rebecca Wilhelmsen (MA) - Norwegian Rosemaling, 2001-2002: Rosemaling, decorative painting on wood furniture, household objects, and even walls flourished in rural Norway during the mid 17th to the mid 19th centuries and was transplanted to America by Norwegian immigrants. There are numerous styles within rosemaling, requiring different designs, colors, lettering, and brush techniques. The variety and complexity of regional rosemaling styles and influences mark this tradition as one with a rich, continually evolving history and character. Master artist Eldrid Arntzen is one of only a few in the United States who can paint distinct rosemaling styles from many Norwegian districts. She goes beyond technical competence in each style to create a design and execution expressing a degree of individuality within the traditional form, often extending it with lively respect.

Born and raised in a Norwegian family in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Eldrid has been rosemaling since the age of ten, studying with master painters in Norway and the United States. Her work has received recognition from the Norwegian-American community, winning the Gold Medal winner in 1987 and the People’s Choice Award in 2003 at Vesterheim, the Norwegian-American museum in Decorah, Iowa. In 2005, Eldrid received a National Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in traditional arts. The National Endowment for the Arts bestows this award to only eleven artists nationwide each year, chosen for their artistic excellence, cultural authenticity, and contributions to their communities.

Eldrid’s apprentices, from the Norwegian community that settled in the maritime towns around New Bedford, had learned basic rosemaling from Helen Wilhelmsen, herself a student of Eldrid’s. During four weekend-long teaching sessions at Eldrid’s home the apprentices improved their painting skills, especially refining their brush strokes and scroll designs within the Telemark style. They spent additional time preparing and practicing before and after their meetings. Each apprentice completed two complicated painted pieces, and Heather painted a cradle for her granddaughter. To this day Becky Wilhelmsen incorporates rosemaling skills into her work painting decorative pottery.

"I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Eldrid in the apprenticeship program. She had previously taught my mother-in-law so I knew how masterful her work was. I'm looking forward to spending more time rosemaling in retirement and putting to use the skills I acquired through my apprenticeship with Eldrid. Heather and I designed, painted and donated rosemaled Christmas ornaments to our annual Trinity Lutheran Church Fair fundraiser for ten years after our apprenticeship. Being taught by Eldrid advanced my skills exponentially!" - Rebecca Wilhelmsen


Tentso Sichoe (CT) with Tseyang Lhamo (CT) – Tibetan Carpet Weaving, 2015-2017: Tibetans and Nepalese in the Himalayan region have been weaving carpets for generations, using the rugs as seat coverings and warm bedding in homes and monasteries. Traditional designs reflect the influence of Buddhism, depicting animals from stories and monastic texts, and geometric motifs that often symbolize concepts such as the endless knot. The process of rug weaving begins with caring for herds of sheep and shearing their wool, cleaning and processing it, then spinning and dyeing the wool. Weaving is done by hand on an upright wooden loom, then the finished carpet is trimmed and stretched.

Born in 1948 in Tibet, Tentso Sichoe fled from Tibet with her family during the 1959 Chinese takeover of Tibet, finally settling in the Mustang district of Nepal close to the northern border with Tibet. She began working at a Tibetan handicraft center in 1975, in the Namgyling refugee camp in Mustang, learning with a skilled weaver from Tibet. The traditional art of weaving became a source of livelihood for many Tibetan refugees who had been displaced from their homes by the conflict. Tentso worked in the rug weaving industry for about 15 years until 1990. In 2003, she immigrated to the United States and currently lives with her daughter and family in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Tentso’s daughter Tseyang has been learning the unique Tibetan knotting method, which creates durable rugs since each warp is knotted individually during the weaving process. Together they wove a carpet with a simple geometric design along the edges. They hope to locate a larger loom so they can produce more elaborate designs.

"I was familiar with carpet weaving from my parents’ work, but never had the chance to learn it because I was away at school. Now I am learning the fundamentals of weaving from setting up the loom, preparing materials, and counting graphic design elements. More importantly I have come to truly appreciate rug weaving as not only an art form but also as something that was a source of support for the refugees who fled Tibet after 1959. My involvement in the apprenticeship has sparked the interest of the younger generation in my community. Tibetan youth have become interested in rug weaving and in other art forms like Tibetan folk music, as a way to preserve the culture." - Tseyang Lhamo


Mariachi Mexico Antiguo, a group of twelve men and women based in Wallingford, Connecticut, is celebrated for its vibrant sound, traditional core, and respectful focus on the traditions of the mariachi genre. Their instrumentation includes guitar, guitarrón, harp, violin, trumpet, and vocals. Established in 2010 by former and current students of local music schools in the Las Vegas area, Mariachi Mexico Antiguo serve as ambassadors of mariachi, performing in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, New York, Colorado, Washington, Wyoming, Connecticut, and the Lowell Folk Festival in Massachusetts. Mariachi Mexico Antiguo has worked with renowned artists such as Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, Jose Hernandez and his Mariachi Sol de Mexico, and Jesus “Chuy” Guzman and members of Los Camperos de Nati Cano. They have also accompanied artists such as Beatriz Adriana, Graciela Beltran, Gildardo Alvarez, Juan Valentin, Flor de Toloache, and Placido Domingo.

Members of the group had visited Connecticut several times to teach mariachi music at a new academy for young students, developed in Wallingford’s Mexican community by Evangeline Mendoza. The success of this venture, and the founder’s retirement, led twelve musicians from the group to move to Connecticut from Las Vegas in 2016 to lead the school. Since then Mariachi Mexico Antiguo has become well known for its joyous and authentic performances in festival, concert, church, and community settings. They have won awards including Best Mariachi in the Tri-State Area and Best Mariachi in the East Coast. Mariachi Mexico Antiguo has produced a CD of their music. Current leader of the group Rodbel Virula mentored guitarron student Citlalli Hernandez in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Program in 2018.


Daphne Board (MA) with Lisa Davidson (CT) – Cordwaining, 2012-2013: Specializing in handcrafting shoes and boots that are both beautiful and appropriate for orthopedic needs, Daphne learned from traditional shoemakers in Nova Scotia and apprenticed to an orthopedist to understand the science behind supportive footwear. Now a certified pedorthist with special training to develop footwear with orthotics and modifications, Daphne follows in a long line of cordwainers, a European guild craft hundreds of years old and named from the French term for shoemaker, “cordonnier.” Since 2001, she has established a successful business in custom shoe-making in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Daphne taught Lisa how to use wooden shoe “lasts” or molds to gauge the size for a shoe, then to cut and stitch using early 20th century machines in Daphne’s studio. Designing and transferring a flat sketch to the 3-D last came next. Training also included sourcing and selection of leathers, what hammers to use where, how to hold and use a cutter which is surgically sharp, and how to hold the blade with the correct pressure to “skive” the leather - shaving the surface to make the leather thinner in an area where you need to reduce bulk from seams. Lisa learned how to use a “lasting post” or the “anvil” for different stages of work on the shoe, along with buffers, shapers, and glues.

Lisa made two pairs of shoes during the apprenticeship, brogues with a traditional welted sole for her husband’s problem feet and high heels for her stylish niece. For these, Lisa had to ensure that the sole was much stronger through the arch so that the foot “seated” well over the heel itself - shoe-making requires knowledge of how feet work and how the body moves. Lisa describes her shoe-making as creating “Slow Shoes.”

"I am very keen to learn as much as I can about making shoes and boots from the last (shoe form) in the traditional way. I want to make shoes that are both beautiful and healthy to wear; beauty achieved not at the expense of fit and supportive comfort. Men and women at any age should have comfortable shoes that are also beautiful. Practicality wedded to elegance… maybe in the end it is the same thing? The shoe-making tradition is a very old one. I learned that it is one of the ancient guild crafts, and there is an ‘Honorable Cordwainers Company’ in this country, modeled on the guild of the ‘Worshipful Cordwainers’ that has existed in England for centuries. Having my endeavor to learn this traditional work, this practical skill, recognized and supported as having meaning and worth, deepened my own understanding and respect for tradition, quality, giving things time, creating something. This somehow renewed in me a sense of being part of something bigger than myself. I see that I am learning something that is useful to humans, something worthy to offer my community." - Lisa Davidson


Kevin Doyle is a renowned traditional Irish step dancer based in Rhode Island. His dance is devoted to and inspired by steps brought to the United States by his Irish-born mother in the 1930s. He performs old style traditional Irish step dance and American tap dance. A lifelong dancer and performer, Kevin was a U.S. Champion Irish step dancer in his early competitive years, and has been entertaining audiences ever since with his traditional style of "close to the ground" rhythms and intricate foot work as an artist, a choreographer, producer, and teacher. He won a National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014, and served as a teaching artist in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, teaching student Nicole LeBlanc. Kevin performed at one of CCHAP’s outdoor concerts in 2018, and at the Apprenticeship 20th anniversary exhibit opening event at CHS in 2018.


Dan Foster, a fiddle player originally from York, England, moved to the US in 2015, and settled in Connecticut and later Massachusetts. Dan began playing violin at age 7, then fell in love with traditional fiddling at 18. He has studied with master fiddlers in Ireland and has developed a career playing fiddle for Irish dance competitions, as well as teaching widely in New England. Dan’s traditional music group Daymark tours regularly and he also plays with Caravan of Thieves. He has taught in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, mentoring students Mark Bodah and Eva Meier, among others, and has performed with different musicians at three of CCHAP’s outdoor concerts and at the Apprenticeship 20th anniversary exhibit closing event at CHS in 2018.


Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to these artists and these events.


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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