Honoring individuals who carry on traditions with excellence is the focus of two annual programs coordinated by the Michigan Traditional Arts Program (MTAP) of Michigan State University: the Michigan Heritage Awards, and the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeships.
Ordinarily, nominations and applications for these two programs are due December 1. Due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and recent notification of the receipt of federal grant funding for MTAP, the deadline has been extended. Nominations for 2021 Heritage Awards and applications for the apprenticeships are due Monday, January 4, 2021. Heritage Award nomination forms and apprenticeship application forms are available online at http://traditionalarts.msu.edu. Anyone considering putting together an application for either program should contact Micah Ling, at msu.mtap@gmail.com or 517-353-5526.
Support for the 2021 Michigan Heritage Awards and the Michigan Traditional Arts Program is provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and generous contributions from individuals.
More about the 2021 Michigan Heritage Awards:
Since 1985, the MSU Museum’s Michigan Traditional Arts Program has, through its Michigan Heritage Awards, honored the achievements and dedication of Michigan’s traditional artists and traditional arts advocates. The awards recognize these practitioners in the areas of performance, material culture, and community leadership.
The awardees in 2020 were:
- Bill Church of Hopkins (Allegan County), for storytelling and community leadership for the Gun Lake Tribe/Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians
- Nic Gareiss of Lansing (Ingham County), for percussive dance
- Paavo Nurmi of Hessel (Mackinac County), for Finnish distaff carving
- Patricia Shackleton of Haslett/Sault Ste. Marie (Ingham/Chippewa Counties), for birch bark cut out work
“The attention and honor extended to these artists through the Michigan Heritage Awards are important not only to them but to all of us who cherish the state’s cultural heritage,” explains Marsha MacDowell, director of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program. “We seek nominations from all over the state so that the awards continue to reflect the great diversity of skills, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds of Michiganders,” she adds.
More about the 2021 Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program:
The Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program supports the continuation of traditional arts practiced in Michigan that are learned informally from one another in small groups and families. These range from decoy duck carving to storytelling, mehndi (henna) art application to Irish step dance, and tamale making to Finnish kantele playing. A master artist works with an apprentice artist, passing on the skills and knowledge about a particular traditional art for. The apprenticeship program awards a $2000 stipend in support of the instruction time the master artist spends with the apprentice. A gallery of past awardees is available online. In 2021, the program will be able to award between 4 and 6 apprenticeships. Applications should include plans for safely observing COVID-19 restrictions as outlined by the state of Michigan and the Center for Disease Control.
“Like its natural resources, Michigan’s cultural traditions are a treasured resource to be nurtured for future generations, which is why the apprenticeship program provides incentives to traditional artists to pursue their art and pass on these skills on to others,” says Micah Ling, coordinator of the apprenticeship program. “Many master and apprentice teams tell us that their apprenticeship was one of the most meaningful times of their lives, providing the opportunity and the means to pass on a living tradition to someone who will continue the tradition as well.”.
More about the Michigan Traditional Arts Program:
The Michigan Traditional Arts Program advances cross-cultural understanding in a diverse society through the documentation, preservation, and presentation of the traditional arts, folklife, and everyday culture in Michigan.
The statewide program is based at the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and is supported by partnerships with MSU University Outreach and Engagement, and MSU’s Matrix: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences. The MSU Museum holds the Michigan Traditional Arts Program archival and object collections.