What's New for 2006

January 31, 2006

Recipients of the 2006 Folk & Traditional Arts Fellowships and Apprenticeships in Traditional Arts awards

Contact: Lisa Rathje

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts today announced the recipients of its 2006 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 Sarah Morelli from the Music Department at Harvard University; Rory Turner, Program Director of Folk and Traditional Arts at Maryland State Arts Council; Su Zheng, Associate Professor of Music and Women’s Studies at Wesleyan University; and Mark Puryear from the National Council for Traditional Arts.

This year's fellowship recipients are Gypsy violinist George Batyi (Allegheny), Eastern Slovak singer of secular songs, Ann Walko (Allegheny), African American storyteller Linda Goss (Philadelphia), and West African dancer Dorothy Wilkie (Philadelphia). Folk and Traditional Arts Fellowships each carry a cash award of $5,000.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts also announced the recipients of the 2006 Apprenticeship in Traditional Arts (ATA) awards. ATA awards of up to $4,000 enable a master to work closely with an apprentice to teach more advanced techniques or repertoire of a traditional artform. This year's ATA awards went to sixteen master/apprentice partnerships from across the state:

Ann Walko with Jerry Jumba (Allegheny) in East Slovak Secular Songs; Victoria Angelo and Marta Sam with Esta Harman and Rose Angelo (Erie) in Acholi Song and Dance; Andrij Dobriansky with Paula Duda Holoviak (Luzerne) in Ukrainian Folk Dance; Alejandro Granados with Elba Hevia y Vaca (Philadelphia) in Flamenco Dance; Diana Meng with Sarah Forsyth and Patrick Chou (Cumberland) in Chinese Painting; Irene Badulak with Sophia Zacharczuk (Bucks) in Pysanky-Ukrainian Easter Eggs; Temujin Ekunfeo with Cathleen Richardson-Bailey (Allegheny) in Yoruba Ritual and Ceremonial Beadwork; Moustapha Bangoura with the Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble (Philadelphia) in West African Dance; Viji Rao with Shoba Narayanan (Philadelphia) in Indian Classical Dance; Chen-Yu Tsuei with Victoria Chou and Mary Glosenger (Dauphin) in Chinese Dance and Costume making; Joseph Tayoun with Reem Rosen-Haj, Almokhtar Bdeir, Joshua Feldman, Mazin Blaik, Nathaniel Harlan, and Kerri Chambers (Philadelphia) in Arabic Percussion; Yurij Melnychuk with Vera Nakonechny (Philadelphia) in Ukrainian Embroidery; Bonnie Gale with Melodie Gum (Bradford) in Willow Basketry; Mensura Berberovic with Selma Sinanovic (Erie) in Bosnian Love Ballads; Mark Humphrey with Ian McLeod (Allegheny) in Pipe Band Drumming; and Orlando Fiol with Shawn Hennessey (Philadelphia) in Bata Drumming.