Six New Apprenticeships Preserve Traditional Arts Across the Commonwealth and Beyond

Charlottesville—Today, the Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities announced the six teams of artists that will receive Folklife Apprenticeships for 2024–2025. Since 2002, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Virginia Folklife Program has funded 154 apprenticeships in cultural traditions, serving 346 individual artists to date.

“Our 2024 apprenticeship teams include small business owners, renowned musicians in bluegrass and Uyghur dutar and singing, along with experts in homemaking skills like canning, broom making, and sewing,” said Katy Clune, Virginia state folklorist and director of the Folklife Program. “We are honored to support their work with these awards and grateful for the federal and state support we receive.”

In addition to financial support—each team receives $5000 for 12-months of self-designed learning—this opportunity helps connect these cultural ambassadors with new audiences. Folklife staff co-produce short films with the apprenticeship teams and screen them at public programs after the apprenticeship year is complete.

As a result, mentor artists are often reinvigorated in their practice, apprentices develop specialty skills through one-on-one learning, and Virginians can learn about local cultures.

The next round of Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program applications will be available in November 2024 and due in April 2025.

More information—including detailed bios, photos, and video of mentor artists and apprentices—is available at VirginiaFolklife.org.

Virginia Humanities is the state humanities council. We’re headquartered in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia, but we serve the entire state. We aim to share the stories of all Virginians—or, better yet, find ways for people to share their own stories. We want Virginians to connect with their history and culture and, in doing that, we hope we’ll all get to know each other a little better. Founded in 1974, we are one of fifty-six humanities councils created by Congress with money and support from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make the humanities available to all Americans. To learn more, visit VirginiaHumanities.org.