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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.549.19, Connecticut Historical …
Southern New England Apprenticeship Program Gathering, 2004
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.549.19, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Southern New England Apprenticeship Program Gathering, 2004

SubjectPortrait of Somaly Hay Cambodian, 1959 - 2016
SubjectPortrait of William Hare
Date2004 February 21
Mediumprint photographs
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
DescriptionPhotographs from the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program gathering in 2004 at the Institute for Community Research Gallery in Hartford.

(.19-.20) Photos of apprentice weavers from the Finnish American Heritage Society.

(.21-.22) Photos of participants joining in a square dance.

(.23-.24) Photos of Peruvian dance being performed by teacher Teresa Stagnaro and apprentice Adrian Ugarte.

(.25-.26) Photos of the Second Baptist Men’s Choir.

(.27-.28) Photos of Cambodian court dancer and teacher Somaly Hay showing the kbach, hand gestures of Cambodian dance.

(.29) Photo of Irish music apprentice Will Hare playing flute.

(.30) Photo of decorative ironwork created by teacher Walt Scadden and apprentices Susan Madacsi and Brian Hall.

(.31-.34) Photos of French Canadian fiddler and teacher Rosaire LeHoux playing fiddle for the square dance being called by teacher Bob Livingston.
Object number2015.196.549.19-.34
CopyrightIn Copyright
NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.


Subject Note: As part of its NEA-funded Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program produced an informal gathering of artists who had participated in the program since its inception in 1997. The event took place in the Institute for Community Research Gallery on February 21, 2004. The artists demonstrated their art work or performed their music and dance, sharing their stories and techniques across art forms and cultures. Artists who displayed examples of their art included: blacksmiths, rosemalers (Norwegian painting on wood), Puerto Rican cuatro makers, a Polish iconographer, and Finnish weavers. Performers included Cape Verdean musicians and dancers, a square dance caller, two Peruvian dance groups, an Armenian kamancha student, an Irish flute player, a gospel quartet, Franco-American fiddlers, and Cambodian singers and dancers. Participants sampled food from a variety of local ethnic restaurants and a cake made by traditional Puerto Rican baker/decorator Ana Lozada from Hartford. The gathering provided feedback from the artists about their experiences with the Program, helping to improve it and plan for future directions. The success of this event led CCHAP and project partners to plan a public festival and exhibit of all apprenticeships which was held in June 2005.

Biographical Note: Val Galasyn has been a weaver of rug tapestries in the Finnish ryijy (pronounced ruya) style of woven and hand-knotted fabric used as warm bed covers and wall hangings in Finland. He has won awards from Finnish cultural organizations across the country, and was honored by Governor Rell with induction into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame on the basis of his artistic work and long-time practice as a physician. Val weaves in collaboration with his wife Aili, a master of Finnish textile traditions. Aili has also received an award from the Secretary of the State for her decades of service to the town of Canterbury in eastern Connecticut where many Finns have settled.

Val and Aili augmented their knowledge of Finnish weaving techniques through a three-year apprenticeship with master weaver Seija Floderus under the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program developed by the Institute for Community Research. Seija donated an old Scandinavian loom and taught several weavers at the Finnish American Heritage Society in Canterbury, Connecticut, an important cultural organization that promotes Finnish heritage. Val and Aili are life-long members, and donated the ryijy commemorating Finnish Independence from Russia in 1917. It hangs on the wall of the Finnish Hall auditorium.

Ryijy-weaving is a labor intensive process. First the loom is warped with linen thread. Then a base weave is added for several rows, alternating with three strands of wool that are individually hand tied and knotted onto the warp threads, very evenly and tightly to create the texture and heavy cover of the tapestry. A ryijy is usually large; historically they were woven with the date of a marriage and were used as a rug for the couple to kneel on during the marriage ceremony. Then the ryijy was hung on the wall as a family heirloom. The Finnish Independence Day tapestry is Val’s first ryijy and took him two years to make. Aili also weaves the linen towels that her family uses in their sauna.


Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this event and artists.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
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