WATCH: Engaging Tradition
A new educational resource from ACTA
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We are excited to launch Engaging Tradition, a new digital media resource from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts!
Engaging Tradition is a series of educational videos that share the histories, practices, and communities behind several of California’s cherished traditional art forms. These videos are designed for teachers, students, and anyone interested in learning about traditional arts in a variety of educational settings. Browse through the videos on our website and you will find visualizations of history, personal narratives from culture bearers, and participatory demonstrations with artists, each contributing a thread to the rich cloth of our shared cultural heritage.
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with Grace Megumi Fleming
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In this first series of 27 videos, ACTA Arts in Corrections artist fellows created individual mini-documentaries about their journeys and traditional arts practices. Produced remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, these videos first aired inside California state prisons on Division of Rehabilitative Programs (DRP) TV, a program of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
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Top image: A dancer from the Nartthasin Thai Dance Group performs at the Promise Zone Arts Live concert in Los Angeles in 2019. Photo: T. Saarelma/ACTA. |
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In the News:
"How Fil Ams in the West Coast are engaging with Ilocano weaving as resistance"
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"These processes of decolonizing and re-indigenization are remarkable phenomena among Filipino progressives living or born in the North American diaspora — which in turn directly correlates to the phenomenal blossoming of Filipino culture and arts there, such as in dance, music, kulintang and other percussion music, literature, martial arts, baybayin, tattoo, language classes, herbal medicine and many more. I dream to make traditional and indigenous weaving part of that renaissance among Filipino Americans."
San Francisco-based weaver and activist Rachel Lozada penned a moving personal essay for CNN Philippines tracing her journey as a steward of inabel, a traditional form of weaving among the Ilocano people of the Philippines. Rachel is currently working with 2021 ACTA Living Cultures grantee organization Balay Kreative to lead workshops in how to make traditional inabel cradle clothes. Read the essay to learn more about how diasporic Filipinos are leading a resurgence in traditions like Ilocano weaving in the Bay Area.
Photo: Community-engaged weaver, activist, and entrepreneur Rachel Lozada shares her experience in sharing her heritage to other Filipinos. Photo by Myleen Hollero/Courtesy of Rachel Lozada.
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In the News:
"Oakland musician Māhealani Uchiyama honors the music of Zimbabwe"
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"I have a duty to be an explainer, to connect different communities that are attracted to the same thing. For all of our material wealth, we’re so spiritually devolved. We have a lot to learn from a lot of these communities."
Learn about Oakland-based artist Māhealani Uchiyama's new book, The Mbira: An African Musical Tradition, in which she shares the history and cultural significance of the mbira, an instrument and tradition of the Shona people of Zimbabwe.
Māhealani is the director of Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, a 2021 ACTA Living Culture grantee organization. The grant supports the center's African American Mbira Project, which aims to introduce, support, and perpetuate the music of the mbira within the African American community. The center will host weekly online classes and the presentation of master mbira players as part of its effort to restore access to this rich tradition, which is one of the only forms of African music in the U.S. to exist largely outside of the African American community.
Photo: Dancer, musician, composer, and choreographer Māhealani Uchiyama, with an mbira, an instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Uchiyama's new book, The Mbira: An African Musical Tradition, hit shelves on Sept. 14. Photo by Amir Aziz.
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Round 8 and 9 of the California Relief Grant are open for applications! Round 8 is specifically designed for nonprofit cultural institutions, while Round 9 is open more broadly. Grant awards range from $5,000 to $25,000. For Round 8, grants will only be available to nonprofit cultural institutions that did not receive funding in any previous rounds, and grants will be prioritized based on the documented percentage revenue declines based on a reporting period comparing Q2 and Q3 of 2020 versus Q2 and Q3 of 2019.
DEADLINE: 9/30/2021
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DEADLINE: various, beginning 10/6/2021
The San Francisco Arts Reopening Fund announces $714,000 in facility-related post-COVID reopening grants for arts and culture nonprofits in San Francisco. Eligible organizations with physical spaces can apply to receive grants of up to $35,000, and eligible organizations with virtual spaces can apply to receive grants of up to $10,000. Eligible organizations with both physical and virtual spaces can apply for both grants for up to $45,000. Physical spaces are defined as spaces with a property address in San Francisco. Virtual spaces are defined as online spaces that enhance the organization’s ability to produce and publicly disseminate artistic and cultural experiences to San Francisco residents and visitors.
DEADLINE: 10/8/2021
California Humanities Quick Grants (between $1,000 and $5,000) are awarded three times a year (February, June, October) to small-scale public humanities programs and projects which take place within one year from the award date. Projects should be grounded in the humanities, show potential to provide high quality humanities learning experiences for participants and audiences, and demonstrate capacity for successful implementation. Appropriate formats include virtual and in-person community dialogues, reading and film discussion groups, oral history workshops, non-fiction workshops, speaker series, and many more activities based in humanities disciplines. Any California-based nonprofit organization or non-federal public agency is eligible to apply. Note: A cash or in-kind match of the award is NOT required.
DEADLINE: 10/18/2021
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Senderos, a nonprofit organization in Santa Cruz, CA, seeks a talented administrator to lead its multi-service nonprofit organization into the future. This position will be responsible for a broad range of duties overseeing the strategy and operations of the organization, including: community relations, social media, event planning, meeting facilitation, resource development, finance, program and event coordination, communications, and managing multiple priorities and deadlines. See the full job announcement here.
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