Individual Artists

Traditional Arts Apprenticeships
Deadline: April 20, 2009

Grant Coordinator: Lynn Martin Graton
lynn.j.graton@dcr.nh.gov
(603) 271-8418

These FY10 Grant Guidelines are valid for fiscal year July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010

Traditional Arts are passed on from one generation to the next. The NH State Council on the Arts supports the perpetuation of traditional arts by funding Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grants. This unique funding opportunity supports a master traditional artist to teach an experienced apprentice in one-on-one sessions. Apprenticeship grants recognize master traditional artists for their artistic excellence and commitment to preserving their heritage and support the efforts of promising apprentices who want to learn a tradition and share it with others.

A successful Traditional Arts Apprenticeship is built upon trust and respect. Therefore, individuals interested in applying for this grant should identify someone they would like to work with and then apply together as a team. In some cases, the Traditional Arts Program can provide information on individuals working in traditional art forms in New Hampshire, but it is up to the individuals to contact each other.

When applying for a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant, the master & apprentice team should work together to develop a plan for what they would like to do during the Apprenticeship and then complete the application form together. If funded, the master artist & apprentice team must meet for a minimum of 80 hours and can meet for up to 120 hours over a six to ten month period. Each master & apprentice team is required to give a community presentation within six months of the completion of the Apprenticeship grant. This can be at a local library, school, fair, gallery or community event. The Traditional Arts Program usually sponsors a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Showcase at the annual League of NH Craftsmen Fair held in Newbury, NH. Grantees working in craft traditions are usually invited to utilize this opportunity as their required community presentation.

What are traditional arts?
Traditional arts are artistic activities that are passed down from one generation to the next within families and communities and are regarded by the community as part of their heritage. These activities can include music, dance, storytelling, crafts, skills, celebrations, and architecture. Communities can be defined in many ways, such as groups that share the same ethnic heritage, language, geographic area, religion, occupation, or way of life.

For a traditional artist, being true to the past is usually more important than change or innovation. Therefore, the techniques and forms of traditional arts tend to change very slowly. Though each generation adds their special gift to the tradition, the sense of what is beautiful and well done is defined more by the community than by an individual artist's personal creative vision. Because of this, traditional arts often become symbols of identity and pride for a community.

Traditional arts encompass folk arts. These are local "grass roots" artistic activities that are usually taught informally. A fiddle player may learn by playing along with older musicians at local community dances, a quilter may learn by helping her mother, a woodcarver may learn by helping out a neighbor, and a storyteller usually draws upon real life experiences growing up in a particular region or neighborhood. Folklife embraces a much wider range of cultural activities including food traditions, occupational skills, ways of speaking, and celebrating.

The NH State Arts Council’s Traditional Arts Program seeks to be responsive to how communities define themselves and their traditions. Because of limited resources, we place emphasis on supporting tradition bearers that have a direct connection to the community or group from which a tradition emerged.

Here are just a few of the traditional art forms that can be found in New Hampshire:
New England social dance & music (including contra and square dancing); French-Canadian fiddling and song; Scottish Highland piping, drumming & dance; Irish ceili dancing; Jewish Klezmer music; African-American gospel music; African drumming and dance; Western Abenaki ash & sweet grass basket making; quilting; rug braiding; rug hooking; spinning; lace-making; dried wreath making; decorative painting; Scandinavian knitting; Chinese knot tying; Russian iconography; musical instrument making; furniture making; sign carving; fly tying; Polish paper cutting; wood carving; barrel making (cooperage); canoe building; boat building; dog sled making; snowshoe making; fish net making; bow and arrow making; stone wall building; timber framing; ox yoke making; and harness making.

For more information on traditional arts and folklife in New Hampshire, visit:
New Hampshire Folklife. This online educational resource includes an interactive Learning Center and a searchable database of traditional music recordings.

Maximum Grant Request
A master artist and apprentice team may apply for a combined total of up to $3,400 per year. Within that amount, the maximum request for the master artist is $2,400 and the maximum request for the apprentice is $1,000.

Important Note: All grant categories and amounts are subject to change, depending upon availability of state and federal funds for any fiscal year.

Required Match: No cash match is required for this grant. The time invested by the apprentice is considered an in-kind match on the project.

Who May Apply?
Individuals representing any cultural or ethnic tradition in New Hampshire may apply for a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant.

The master artist should be:

• Recognized by his or her community as an established and mature practitioner of his or her traditional art form and able to demonstrate artistic excellence through supporting materials.
• Be committed to teaching the tradition to the proposed apprentice.

The apprentice should:

• Have some experience in the artistic tradition he or she wants to study.
• Be committed to sharing with others the knowledge learned during the Apprenticeship.
• Be at least 12 years old and have parental approval to apply if younger than 18.

Residency Requirements & Border State Apprenticeships
The State Arts Council recognizes that traditional art forms are often preserved regionally.  Therefore, as long as one member of the Apprentice team is a resident of the state of New Hampshire, the other member of the team may be a resident of Vermont, Maine, or Massachusetts.

If applying for a Border State Apprenticeship, we urge applicants to plan a schedule that maximizes teaching sessions. This will help keep the travel expenses in appropriate proportion to the amount requested to cover the master artist fees. If either a master artist or an apprentice plan overnight stays, the State Arts Council cannot cover the cost of housing and meals.

Eligible Project Expenses
Grant funds may cover:

• Master artist fees for teaching, supplies, and travel costs essential to the Apprenticeship.
• Apprentice supplies and travel costs essential to the Apprenticeship.
  (Sorry, the grant does not cover apprentice fees.)

Restrictions

• Each individual applicant, regardless of whether he or she is applying as a master artist or an apprentice, may submit only one application per year.
• A master artist and apprentice team may apply for and receive funding for two consecutive years. Following this, the team must wait one fiscal year before applying again.

This grant does not support:

• Traditional occupations such as fishing, farming, or logging, unless they include the making of crafts associated with the occupation such as fishnets, boat building, harness making, ox yoke making, or wood carving.
• Contemporary fine arts and crafts, such as oil-painting, screen printing, etching, glass blowing, sculpture, and ceramics.
• Theater arts such as opera, play writing, or acting.
• Healing arts such as massage or acupuncture.
• Decorative body arts such as tattoo or body painting.

Application Review Process
Each year, a review panel made up of community members knowledgeable in cultural traditions is assembled. The panel members read each application and then attend a meeting where support materials are reviewed and each application is discussed. A State Arts Councilor facilitates the meeting. Applications are reviewed and rated based on the funding criteria listed. Recommendations, based on funds available, are forwarded to the State Arts Council for review and approval. If an individual's cumulative total of grants received from the State Arts Council for that fiscal year (July 1 - June 30) is $2,500 or more, the grant recommendation must also be submitted to the Governor and Executive Council for final approval.

Funding Criteria
A panel of community-based cultural specialists reviews the applications and makes funding recommendations to the State Council. The following criteria are used by reviewers to evaluate and rate applications:

• Appropriateness of the art form to this funding category.
• Excellence of master artist's work.
• Recognition and community support of master artist.
• Commitment of the master artist to perpetuate the tradition and work with the apprentice.
• Readiness of apprentice.
• Quality of apprentice’s work.
• Commitment of apprentice to perpetuate the tradition and share knowledge with others after the grant period.
• A clear work plan with goals, steps for accomplishing them, and a budget that matches the plan.

Funding Priorities
Funding for Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grants is limited and awarded on a competitive basis. To provide for the equitable distribution of funds, when two applications have been determined as having equal merit by the review panel, the State Arts Council will give funding priority to master artists who are applying for the first time.

Community Presentation
Each master & apprentice team is required to give a community presentation within six months of the completion of the Apprenticeship. This can be a local library, school, fair, gallery, or community event. The Traditional Arts Program usually sponsors an Apprenticeship Showcase each summer. Grantees in crafts and/or performing traditions may be invited to utilize this opportunity as their required community presentation.

How to Apply

• Print out the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Application Form: MSWord / PDF
• Please remember to include the required support materials (see the application for more information).

Applicants are encouraged to contact Lynn Martin Graton, Traditional Arts Coordinator, at 603/271-8418 or lynn.j.graton@dcr.nh.gov to discuss their project.

Narrative Questions
See the application form.

Required Support Materials
See Preparation of Work Samples for instructions on preparing work samples/support materials.
For master artists:

• Two letters of support.
• Work Sample appropriate to art form-- photographs, slides, digital images on CD-R, VHS video tapes compact discs, DVDs, and/or audio-tapes.

For apprentice:

• Two letters of support.
• Work Sample appropriate to art form-- photographs, slides, digital images on CD-R, VHS video tapes compact discs, DVDs, and/or audio-tapes.

How to Prepare the Application Package
1. A master artist and apprentice should complete one application form together. The application should include original signatures. Applicants must answer the questions on the application in their own words. If language or disabilities present barriers to understanding or filling out the form, the applicant may ask for assistance as needed. State Arts Council staff is always available to provide technical assistance prior to application deadlines.
2. Include the required support materials (letters & photos, videos, etc.) as requested above. Please do not put the application and support materials in a 3-ring binder.
3. Please make a copy of the application for your files.
4. Mail or deliver the application and materials to: NH State Council on the Arts, 2 1/2 Beacon Street, Suite 225, Concord, NH 03301 by the deadline.

Deadline
Applications must be postmarked or hand delivered to the NH State Council on the Arts office at 2 ½ Beacon St, Suite 225, Concord, by 4:15 p.m. on the deadline date noted above. Office hours are Monday - Friday, 8:15 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. The office is closed all state and most federal holidays. Late applications will not be accepted. The NHSCA cannot accept applications transmitted by facsimile (FAX) or email. It is not  responsible for applications lost in transit. Errors and omissions may affect a panel's evaluation of your application, so please prepare your application carefully and follow instructions.

Notification
Applicants will be notified of their application status approximately ten weeks following the application deadline.

Payment
The maximum combined grant amount for a master artist and apprentice team is $3,400. Within this amount, the maximum request for a master artist is $2,400 and the maximum request for an apprentice is $1,000.

If funded for a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant, the State Arts Council issues two contracts—one to the master artist and one to the apprentice.

• The master artist contract covers master artist fees, supplies and travel expenses. Payment to the master artist is made in two installments: 60% at the beginning of the Apprenticeship and the remaining 40% when the project is nearing completion.
• The apprentice contract covers supplies and travel expenses. The apprentice receives 100% payment at the beginning of the Apprenticeship.

The NHSCA disburses funds appropriated from public sources, both federal and state. Checks are issued by the Central Administrative Services of State of NH, not the Department of Cultural Resources or the State Arts Council. Upon receipt of properly executed grant forms, the State of New Hampshire generally pays individual grants of under $2,500 to grantees within 4 to 6 weeks. If an individual is awarded $2,500 or more or has received other State Arts Council funds which brings the cumulative total received with the state’s fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) to $2,500 or above, grants need to be approved by the Governor and Executive Council; consequently, payment can take up to ten weeks. All awards are subject to availability of state and federal funds. Therefore, we ask applicants to plan cash flow accordingly.

Master artists and apprentices are responsible for all applicable federal taxes. We urge grant recipients to keep all receipts and other appropriate records for tax filing purposes.

IMPORTANT:

• All grant agreements must be returned by January 1 of the fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) in which they are awarded. Failure to return the grant agreement by that date may result in the cancellation of the grant and reallocation of funds.
• Payment of a grant will be withheld if the final reports for previous grants are not in compliance with policy below.

Grant Period and Reporting Requirements
The grant period is July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010. A final report is due by July 31, 2010. An extension of up to three months may be requested. The request for extension must be made, in writing, before the deadline for filing has passed to the grant coordinator responsible for administering the grant and should briefly note why the extension is necessary and the date the report will be submitted.

Failure to submit the final report by the required date will result in grantees becoming ineligible to apply for NHSCA funding for two years. Additionally, failure to submit the final report may result in a withholding of funds from any currently awarded NHSCA grant.

Click here for the Final Report Download Center.

Last updated: November 20, 2008