Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures

432 East Campus Mall, Room 332
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
608-262-8180
Web site: http://csumc.wisc.edu

Wisconsin Arts Board (Map)

This collection contains color slides, applications, and award information for most of the c. 130 master artists who applied to the Wisconsin Arts Board for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program during a twelve-year period, 1984-1996. The Program administered grants to master traditional artists to teach their skills to apprentices and focused primarily on members of Wisconsin's Woodland Indian nations--Ho-Chunks, Menominees, six bands of Ojibwas, Oneidas, Potawatomis, and Stockbridge-Munsees. Supported Woodland traditions included beadwork, quillwork, black ash or birchbark basketry, the making of dance regalia, drum or other instrument making, wood and metalworking, traditional singing and dancing, and storytelling. Awardees also included master-apprentice pairs representing other Wisconsin cultural traditions such as Arab and African drumming, Hmong-American qeej-playing, Czech- and Slovak-American wheat weaving, Mexican-American dance, Norwegian-American rosemaling and woodcarving, and Puerto Rican-American musical instrument making.