The Washington State Heritage Arts Apprenticeship Program supports individuals interested in learning a traditional trade, craft, or skill. It encourages communities to carry on cultural traditions important to their heritage and identity. These traditions include skills and techniques related to occupational arts, storytelling and other verbal arts, dance, culinary traditions, music, and much more.
In addition to supporting the transmission of cultural knowledge, the Apprenticeship Program also teaches important job skills and acts, in part, as an economic development tool.
Learn more about the Heritage Arts Apprenticeship Program here.
The 15 teams selected for the 2019-2020 year feature a wide range of traditions (from foraging wild plants to hip hop music) and great cultural and geographic diversity. Please read about the newest cohort below.
2019 – 2020 HAAP Teams
Master: Anwesha Das (Bothell)
Apprentice: Akhilesh Vadari (Redmond)
Tradition: Indian classical dance. Bharatnatyam is an ancient dance form of South India dating back to the second century B.C., and the apprentice will learn the finer techniques and nuances in the tradition.
Master: David Boxley (Lynnwood)
Apprentice: Dylan P. Sanidad (Seattle)
Tradition: Northwest Coast Native art, Tsimshian tribal style—a beautiful and intricate art form of Alaskan Native people that was once forbidden to be practiced.
Master: Ratna Roy (Olympia)
Apprentice: Radha R. Iyer (Redmond)
Tradition: Indian – Odissi Dance Abhinaya. The Classical Odissi dance is in the little-known Mahari (powerful female temple dancers) tradition of Guru Pankaj Charan Das. An essential part of this tradition is acting, or Abhinaya—storytelling through dance and drama.
Master: Ganesh Rajagopalan (Sammamish)
Apprentice: Aakarsh S. Dhilip (Renton)
Tradition: Indian Carnatic music. An important feature of this tradition is improvisation, and the violin has been an integral part of Indian music history for the past 200 years. From its inception there have been countless violin players and only a few of them can be identified for their tonal excellence and creative genius. Ganesh Rajagopalan is counted among the best of them.
Master: Susan Pavel (Skokomish)
Apprentice: Tahnee Miller (Skokomish Nation)
Tradition: Coast Salish wool weaving, the traditional weave style of the Pacific Northwest Indigenous Peoples. The traditional woven regalia and other items were and still are highly sought after for ceremonies and celebrations through a person’s life such as births, namings, achievements, weddings, and life passages.
Master: Afua Kouyate (Seattle)
Apprentice: Giavonna White (Seattle)
Tradition: West African drum and dance. An intensive study of African arts and culture through the lenses of traditional and authentic West African dance and its folkloric preservation. This apprenticeship will focus on folkloric dances from Guinea.
Master: Keith Phillips (Tenino)
Apprentice: Ian Williams (Tenino)
Tradition: Stone carving in Tenino. Stone carving has been a tradition in Tenino since the first sandstone quarries opened here at the start of the 20th century. The stone cut and shaped by laborers in the local quarries was used to build banks, libraries, state buildings, monuments, and homes all throughout the western United States. Due to the shift in commercial building practices towards concrete and steel structures the stone industry largely died out in Tenino and is preserved today by a group of dedicated artists.
Master: Marja Eloheimo (Olympia)
Apprentice: Gloria Gutierrez (Lakewood)
Tradition: Heritage- and place-based natural plant dyeing. All cultures have dye traditions, but today few people retain the knowledge or practice the skills of natural dyeing. The goal of the apprenticeship is to learn and share natural dye practices with plants that are both local (seasonal, edible, and medicinal) and global (historically-important classics) as well as rooted in our heritage traditions.
Master: Chelsey Richardson (Federal Way)
Apprentice: Charli Kirkendall (Seattle)
Tradition: Spoken word. Spoken word is an engaging performance art that uses the same literary techniques as the written word, but relies heavily on imagery and acting. Spoken word is often an expression of joy, pain, loss, and defiance. It gives voice to those who are marginalized. The apprentice will learn new literary techniques, performance, and the art of poetry slam.
Master: King Khazm (Seattle)
Apprentice: Ian Lee Torres (Seattle)
Tradition: Hip hop music and culture. Hip hop is an international movement that was formed by youth of color of New York City in the early 1970s. King Khazm will teach Ian the skills, knowledge, and mental conditioning necessary to become a viable and socially responsible artist within Washington State’s hip hop scene.
Master: Carol Noyes (Lopez Island)
Apprentice: Gabe Strand (Lopez Island)
Tradition: Foraging wild plants in the San Juan Islands. Foraging and farming have been linked together throughout the world as rural food traditions. Nearly a lost skill in North America, foraging is still practiced in the more remote rural areas, and among communities where strong cultural traditions have remained intact. Over the course of a year, the team will identify, harvest, and process seasonally available wild foods principally on Lopez Island, where they live.
Master: Jake Prendez (Seattle)
Apprentice: Raquel Garcia (Seattle)
Tradition: Chicanx art. Chicanx art is an artistic tradition that emerged out of the Chicano movement of the 1960s. Prendez will teach Garcia an oil painting practice that features explicit references to the Chicano experience in America, indigenous influences, pop cultural iconography, and social justice themes.
Master: James Wilburn (Spokane)
Apprentice: Roberta J. Wilburn (Spokane)
Tradition: West African drumming. The team will focus on the use of the drums from West Africa, specifically the three sizes of festival djembes and other instruments that complement the djembe, such as talking drum, rainsticks, shakers, and bells.
Master: Avani Desai (Redmond)
Apprentice: Ramadevi Vaddepalli (Sammamish)
Tradition: Henna (Mehendi). The Indian tradition of Henna is temporary body art which stains your skin for 7-10 days. It derives from a plant called Lawsonia Enermis, and has been a tradition for nearly 5,000 years and has both cosmetic art and healing capacities.
Master: Bethany Taylor (Spokane)
Apprentice: Katie Smith (Spokane)
Tradition: Letterpress Printmaking. Letterpress is the antique method of printmaking where movable type and images are employed using primarily non-motorized presses. Most commonly, this method was and is used for informative pieces, ephemera, such as posters (broadsides), greeting cards, and other informative materials.
The Washington State Heritage Arts Apprenticeship Program is a project is supported in part by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Cover image: 2018 Madhubani painting Apprenticeship pair Deepti Agrawal (left; Master Artist) and Rohini Mathur (right; Apprentice) of Bothell; photo courtesy of Deepti Agrawal.
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