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Passing It On: Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program - Closing Event - Artist Introductions

SubjectPortrait of Lynne Williamson

SubjectPortrait of Allen Hazard (Narragansett)

SubjectPortrait of Joshua Carter (Pequot)

SubjectPortrait of Jampa Tsondue (Tibetan, born 1959)

SubjectPortrait of Tsering Yangzom (Tibetan)

SubjectPortrait of Tentso Sichoe (Tibetan, born 1948)

SubjectPortrait of Tseyang Lhamo (Tibetan American)

Date2018 March 10

Mediumborn digital video - MTS file

DimensionsDuration: 1 Minutes, 22 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

CopyrightIn Copyright

Object number2015.196.275.2

DescriptionLynne Williamson introducing the performers, demonstrators, and artists who were part of the closing event 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. Artists introduced include:
Allen Hazard (RI) with Joshua Carter (CT) – Wampum Carving
Tentso Sichoe (CT) with Tseyang Lhamo (CT) – Tibetan Carpet Weaving
Jampa Tsondue with Tsering Yangchen (CT) – Tibetan Thangka Painting.

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 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 the Connecticut Historical Society, 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, 2018, featured Lebanese singing, Portuguese accordion playing, Albanian dance, Somali Bantu basket weaving, Assyrian lace making, and decorative woodcarving. During a program on February 17, 2018, 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, 2018, 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.

Subject Note: 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

Subject Note: 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, Connecticut.

In 2011, Tibetan artist Jampa Tsondue taught his daughter Tsering Yangchen the process of creating Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings, under the Southern New England traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. 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. The finished thangka is now displayed in the family’s meditation room.

Biographical Note: Tsering Yangchen was born in South India in 1989, and her family immigrated to Old Saybrook, Connecticut when she was six years old. “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.’

Growing up, I myself began to delve into anything that was artistic, whether it was photography, music, or the one I love best; drawing. My father’s work is not only a profession, but it is a profession that upholds one the aspects of Tibetan culture. Therefore, for my senior year at high school, I worked on my Thangka (Tibetan painting) for a whole year with the guidance of my father. I gained knowledge on the specific material needed to construct one, the significance of the deities on the Thangkas, the importance of the minerals for paint, and the history of Thangkas. I taught myself how to draw, sketch, illustrate, paint, mold, and create. My father does not have to teach me how to draw, but my father is my primary source on how to create a Thangka. The master artist and I have chosen to work together on this program is to, most importantly, keep our Tibetan culture going strong. I am a part of our Old Saybrook Tibetan community, but in the larger picture, I am a part of the Tibetan community in general. Therefore, if it benefits me as an individual, I am benefitting not only my community but the whole Tibetan community, all six million of us. As a Tibetan, I take this opportunity as my duty to carry on Tibetan culture. So, in the future I can be useful in teaching the younger generation more about our culture.”

Subject Note: 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

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