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January 28, 2005

Recipients of the 2005 Folk & Traditional Arts Fellowships and Apprenticeships in Traditional Arts awards

Contact: Carlos Fernandez

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts today announced the recipients of its 2005 Folk & Traditional Arts Fellowship and Apprenticeship in Traditional awards.

Administered by the Institute for Cultural Partnerships, the awards honor and recognize excellent practitioners of traditional performing arts and crafts who are known as masters within their community and have made outstanding contributions to the preservation and development of their art.

This year's panelists for the Craft Traditions Fellowships and Apprenticeships in Traditional Arts were Harold Anderson, Betty Belanus, Kamala Cesar, Elinor Levy, and Tom Van Buren.

This year's fellowship recipients are Nigerian textile artist Yekini S. Atanda (Philadelphia), blacksmith James Hoffman (Beaver),   Ukrainian iconographer Michael Kapeluck (Allegheny), and Ukrainian gerdany beadworker Olga Kolodij (Philadelphia). Folk and Traditional Fellowships each carry a cash award of $5,000.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts also announced the recipients of the 2005 Apprenticeship in Traditional Arts (ATA) awards. ATA awards of up to $4,000 enable a master to train an apprentice in more advanced techniques or repertoire. This year's ATA awards went to thirteen master/apprentice partnerships from across the state: Bosnian sevdalinka singer Mensura Berberovic with Selma Simanovic (Erie); Indian bharathanatyam dancer V.P. Dhananjayan with apprentice Anita Seth (Delaware); African American hip hop dancer Gabriel Dionisio with apprentice Rafael Xavier (Philadephia); African American gardener Blanche Epps with apprentices Erin Bailey and Elizabeth Pulcinella (Philadelphia); blacksmith Gary Grandstaff with apprentice Chanda Weigel (Allegheny/Beaver); Carpatho-Rusyn chanter Jerry Jumba with apprentices Debbie Charochak and Robert Cifrulak (Allegheny); Ukrainian gerdany beadwork artist Olga Kolodij with apprentice Bill Jula (Philadelphia/Alleghany); Japanese classical dancer Kazu Nishihara with apprentice Roko Kawai (Philadephia); Sudanese Acholi dancers Olga Omen, Victoria Angelo, and Marta Sam with apprentices Rose Angelo, Esta Harman, and Basamat Waya (Erie); Chinese musician Wu Peter Tang with apprentices Anna Chang and Jianhua Zhao (Montgomery/Philadelphia); Lebanese derbekki drummer Joseph Tayoun with apprentices Almoktar Bdeir, Mazin Blaik, Josua Feldman, Mohammed Ibrahim (Montgomery/Philadelphia); Chinese classical dancer Chen-Yu Tsuei with apprentices Victoria Chou and Mary Glosenger (Cumberland/Dauphin); and Carpatho-Rusyn and Eastern Slovak secular singer Ann Walko with apprentice Jerry Jumba (Alleghany).

September 1, 2004

Institute for Cultural Partnerships and partners receive Human Genome Project Grant

Contact: Carlos Fernandez

HARRISBURG - The Genetics Services Branch of the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded $400,000 to a project submitted by the Institute for Cultural Partnerships in collaboration with the American Folklife Center, the American Society of Human Genetics and the Genetic Alliance.

Healthy Choices Through Family History Awareness aims to increase awareness and understanding of the ways that family history may influence personal health. The project engages folklorists, anthropologists, genetic health specialists, and consumers in a program designed to increase African American and Latino consumers’ access to genetic health information while working with them to develop ways of organizing and preserving their family history and health-related records.

Stories, anecdotes, and other narrative forms have long served to transmit people’s knowledge and experience to the next generation. Over the past 50 years, folklorists and medical anthropologists have studied such oral traditions to reveal cultural patterns in the understanding of illness and disease. Moreover, researchers have uncovered the importance of oral traditions in shaping individual and social practices important to human adaptation and survival. Yet, public awareness of the relevance of oral traditions and family practices to health care is still very limited.

The Allison Hill area of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania—with a high density of low-income African American and Latino populations—is known for poor health outcomes resulting from diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and infant mortality, all of which have a genetic component. In the initial phase of the project, a research team will engage in a series of focus groups to identify existing family practices used in managing health information. Researchers hope to gain a better understanding of the following issues: 1) what types of family occasions serve as vehicles for sharing family and health related information; 2) which family members tend to manage such information and how; 3) how health-related information is ascertained; and 4) how and what kinds of records are kept. This knowledge will be used to tap into each family’s oral traditions and practices—such as family reunions, personal narratives, use of scrapbooks, and family bibles.

Then, a team of folklorists, applied anthropologists, genetic health specialists, and genetics advocates will work with communities in the Allison Hill area to develop and field-test a family history tool to help individuals and families organize and preserve family history and health-related records.  

Medical researchers have begun to understand genetic factors influencing common diseases. These conditions, including alcoholism, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and mental illnesses have both genetic and environmental etiology. If individuals begin to understand genetic risk, they may make choices that reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes.

Family history is a powerful way to map familial genetic risk. There are, however, a host of ethical, legal and social issues that will be raised by an increased awareness of personal and family health histories, including the management of this information both within and outside the family. The adverse effects of disclosure of increased risk for a serious health problem can have implications for employment, insurance, and in some communities, marriage prospects. For these reasons, the privacy and confidentiality of all genetic information gathered in this project will be protected.   Ultimately, family members will retain and manage their own information.

The project seeks to increase genetic literacy among African American and Latino individuals and families residing in the Allison Hill area. The potential for participants to uncover an increased risk for disease or potentially adverse outcomes have been anticipated, and referral, counseling, and reasonable follow up services will be available. Coupled with consumer education, the project will enable family members to better communicate about potential genetic risk factors among themselves and with their health care and social service providers. The project will also raise providers’ awareness of family medical history and its importance in identifying disease risks within their patient populations.

February 9, 2004

ICP receives state funds for the project, Greater Access to Independence for Newcomers (GAIN).

Contact: Ronald Kirby

HARRISBURG – The Institute for Cultural Partnerships was recently awarded a state grant in the amount to $72,500 to provide employment and training services during 2004 to eligible refugees in South Central Pennsylvania. The grant can be renewed for an additional two years.

This region has seen a substantial growth in its refugee and other foreign-born populations over the past ten years and the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement awarded a “targeted assistance” grant to the state of Pennsylvania to provide employment assistance to refugees here in Central Pennsylvania. Federal targeted assistance grants are awarded based on special needs resulting from resettlement of refugees into a region.

ICP has been joined by partners in the Refugee Services Coalition of Central PA (RSCCP) to implement this new employment enhancement project. Participating partners include: Immigration and Refugee Services of Catholic Charities, PRIME/ECR and Refugee and Immigration Services of Tressler Lutheran Diakon Social Ministries.Area employers also took part in the planning process that led to the award of this grant.

The GAIN Project (Greater Access to Independence for Newcomers) draws upon five key employment strategies which engage area employers and training facilities to meet the needs of refugees in four targeted counties: 1) an innovative job coaching program using both staff and volunteer resources; 2) customized on-the-job training designed by participating employers for refugee workers; 3) technical school based, short-term training to prepare eligible refugees for available employment opportunities; 4) customized skills credentialing services for occupations needed in the region; 5) customized on-the-job site VESL classes designed with employer cost sharing and attendance incentives for refugees.

Refugees from Russia, Ukraine, Bosnia and a number of African countries will be helped to attain greater self-sufficiency through services this project offers. It is expected that the project will assist over 100 eligible refugees this coming year. Refugee will be assisted through short-term vocational training programs at local community colleges, vocational English language training, professional and trade credentialing, job coaching/mentoring and on-the-job training.

February 1, 2004

Our Changing World, an exhibit developed in partnership with the Pennsylvania Boys and Girls Clubs, now traveling across the state.

Contact: Amy Skillman

HARRISBURG – Last fall, ICP collaborated with the Area Council of Pennsylvania Boys and Girls Clubs to develop the exhibit, Our Changing World, featuring the photography and words of its club members. The purpose of the project was to raise public appreciation for the creative and expressive potential of our youth; inspire creativity, through photogprahy and the practice of creative writing; and enable our youth to see their work professioanlly displayed and earn the recognition of families, peers and others in the community.

Over 50 entries were submitted by youth between the ages of 10 and 16 and judged according to artistic sensibility, skill and technique, and relationship to the themes of the exhibit. Through their entries in this exhibit, members expressed their ideas about community, recognized their struggles to understand their role in family and society, and learned about their notions of beauty and teamwork.

The contest and exhibit were promoted by the PA Area Council of Boys & Girls Clubs and co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, The Greater Harrisburg Foundation, Pennsylvania State Empoyees Credit Union, the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

The exhibit, which opened at the State Capitol last December, will now travel to local Boys & Girls Club communities during 2004. It is currently on display at the Reading Public Museum through February 14. For more information or to book the exhbit, please contact Thierry Malley, Director of Communications & Resource Development for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Pennsylvania, at 717-512-2830.

January 15, 2004

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts announces the recipients of the 2004 Folk & Traditional Arts Fellowships and Apprenticeships in Traditional Arts awards.

Contact: Carlos Fernandez

HARRISBURG – HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts today announced the recipients of its 2004 Folk & Traditional Arts Fellowship and Apprenticeship in Traditional awards.

This year's fellowship recipients are African American tap dancer Germaine Ingram, Chinese opera artist Shuyuan Li, South African musician Mogauwane Mahloele, and Spanish Flamenco guitarist Tito Rubio. Folk and Traditional Fellowships each carry a cash award of $5,000.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts also announced the recipients of the 2004 Apprenticeship in Traditional Arts (ATA) awards. ATA awards of up to $4,000 enable a master to train an apprentice in more advanced techniques or repertoire. This year's ATA awards went to thirteen master/apprentice partnerships from across the state: quilter Brenda Applegate with Tina Campomizzi (Westmoreland); African American dancer Marie Basse-Wiles with Jeffrey Page (Philadelphia); Bosnian singer Mensura Berberovic with Nihada Berberovich-Tabich (Erie); Spanish Flamenco dancer Alejandro Granados with Elba Hevia y Vaca (Philadelphia); Blacksmith Gary Granstaff with Chanda Weigel (Allegheny); Croatian Tamburitza musician Jerry Grcevich with Krunoslav Spisic (Westmoreland); Blacksmith James Hoffman with Robert A. Stone (Allegheny); Graffiti artist Daniel Hopkins with Jeff Cylkowski (Philadelphia); Carpatho-Russyn chanter Jerry Jumba with Debbie Charochak and Robert Cifrulak (Allegheny); Ukrainian Gerdany beadwork artist Olga Kolodij with Tatiana Rebensky (Philadelphia); Scottish Highland bagpiper James McIntosh with Palmer Shonk (Westmoreland); Lebanese derbekki drummer Joseph Tayoun with apprentices Josua Feldman, Mazin Blaik, Mohammed Ibrahim, Max Hartt, and Reem Rosen-Haj (Montgomery); and Russian-Jewish mandolinist Charley Rappaport with Alan Epstein (Allegheny).

Administered by the Institute for Cultural Partnerships, the awards are designed to honor and recognize excellent practitioners of traditional performing arts and crafts who are known as masters within their community and have made oustanding contributions to the preservation and development of their art.

August 27, 2003

ICP Launches HABLA!, an Arts-in-Community Residency Project for South Central Pennsylvania

Contact: Carlos Fernandez

HARRISBURG – The Institute for Cultural Partnerships announces the launching of ¡Hagamos Arte en el Barrio Latino! (Let’s Make Art in the Latino Neighborhood!) or a yearlong multi-site, multidisciplinary arts residency program that targets Latino adults living in the south central Pennsylvania region.

Developed in partnership with the Mount Pleasant Hispanic American Center of Harrisburg, the Lancaster Spanish American Civic Association, and the York Spanish American Center, the project will build artistic skill and expressive potential of Latino adults in the areas of poetry, dance, and visual arts through workshops, creation of new works, and public performances, exhibits, and other publications. The project is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Greater Harrisburg Foundation, the York Foundation, Hershey Foods, and Citizens Bank.

Starting September 2003, an artist team composed of poet Rick Kearns Morales, dancer and choreographer Dileiby Saez, and visual artist Teresa Gonzalez will conduct weekly sessions in each art form in Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York. While primarily targeting Latino adults, the artist team plans to engage participants’ families through arts activities and events directed to children, youth, and the elderly. Public events will include performances and exhibits in Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York in mid December 2003 and May 2004, as well as culminating inter site exhibits and performances during the celebration of Hispanic Month in October 2004. All events will be open to the public.

For more information or to register, please contact ICP arts and heritage specialist Carlos Fernandez at 717-238-1770.

August 25, 2003

ICP becomes an Official Partner to the Veterans History Project

Contact: Carlos Fernandez

HARRISBURG - The Institute for Cultural Partnerships has become an official partner to the Veterans History Project, a national initiative launched by American Folklife Center of the Libary of Congress. The initiative seeks to collect the memories, accounts, and documents of war veterans from World War I, World War II and the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf Wards, and to preserve these stories of exprience and service for future generations. The project is made possible by the generous support of the United States Congress, AARP (Founding Corporate Sponsor), and the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust.

The two pillars of the Veterans History Project are volunteers and official partners. Volunteers are individuals--family members, fellow veterans, students, or other interested citizens--who interview war veterans and transcribe their recordings, or identify documents to donate. Civic organizations, veterans groups, government agencies, or institutions, such as a museum, library, community college, college, or university can serve as official partners to the initiative, providing many necessary resources, including recruiting their members as volunteers; providing publicity, equipment, funds or interview training, or organizing education programs.

ICP provides training in interviewing or transcribing for volunteers through participating Official Partners. Over the last year, ICP staff has conducted training workshops for the AARP Kentucky and the Governor's School for Information Technology. These workshops are designed to increase participants' understanding of the personal aspects of oral interviewing and the technical aspects of audio and video documentation.

Click here to visit the Veterans History Project website and learn more about becoming a Volunteer or an Official Partner, or to contact an Official Partner in your area.

August 21, 2003

ICP Offers Folk Arts Funding to Underserved Areas of the State

HARRISBURG - The Institute for Cultural Partnerships encourages arts organizations and community groups to take advantage of the Community Traditions grants, with awards of up to $3,000.

Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, grants are available for projects that help underserved communities in Pennsylvania develop folk arts programming. Grants are available for targeted fieldwork to identify and document under-represented artists and art forms, for developing resources that support public programming, and for local and regional networking, mentoring, and consultation initiatives.

For more information, please visit our Arts & Heritage section, or click here to view program guidelines.