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For Communities – Thursday, March 25, 2021
2021.03.25 - IACA Announces FY21 Master/Apprentice Award Recipients
The Illinois Arts Council Agency (IACA) is pleased to announce the fourteen recipients of Ethnic & Folk Arts Master/Apprentice Program Awards (MAP) for fiscal year 2021. Master artists each receive $3,000 cash awards to instruct their chosen apprentices via one-on-one sessions (observing State of Illinois and NIH Covid-19 safety protocols).
MAP acknowledges the need for structured opportunities to pass on traditional, folk, and classical ethnic arts as part of the preservation of Illinois’ cultural heritage. MAP is made possible with an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. IACA Chairman Shirley R. Madigan states, “Illinois has an exceptionally diverse cultural heritage and the agency is very glad to continue to support the efforts of the Master/Apprentice Program to foster traditional teaching and learning relationships that help sustain that diversity and the artisans.
Traditional ethnic and folk arts eligible for support through the MAP include those which have a community or family base, express that community’s aesthetic, heritage, or tradition, and have endured through several generations. These art forms are expressions of the regional, national, tribal culture, or language group from which they originate.
MAP generally supports art forms found in informal rather than institutional settings. A master artist is an individual recognized within his or her community as an exemplary practitioner of his or her art form. An apprentice is an individual with some experience in the art form to be studied who is committed to attaining mastery in the art form, and who has been selected by the master artist for the one-on-one training offered through this program.
Awards were based on the recommendations of three reviewers who are folklorists and cultural specialists. The IACA Board has final authority on all grants and awards issued by the agency. Timothy W. Frandy, Ph.D., Bowling Green, Kentucky; Heather Miller, Chicago, Illinois; and Edna Patterson-Petty, East Saint Louis, Illinois served as the reviewers for the FY21 MAP. IACA Board members Henry Godinez and Les Begay served as the Panel Chair and Panel Co-Chair respectively. John Gardner and Clark “Bucky” Halker, of Company of Folk, serve as program consultants for the IACA’s Ethnic & Folk Arts Program.
Master Artist Name |
City of Residence |
Artform to be Taught |
Apprentice Name |
|---|---|---|---|
Kioto Aoki |
Oak Park |
Taiko, Japanese drum |
Helen Nagata |
Tatsu Aoki |
Oak Park |
Shamisen, Japanese 3-string lute |
Jill “Kiku” Taura |
Brill Barrett |
Chicago |
Improvisational tap dance |
Ailea Stites |
Kimiko Gunji |
Champaign |
Japanese tea ceremony |
Diana Liao |
Gauri Jog |
Schaumberg |
Kathak dance |
Isha Jog |
Myrna Madigan |
Broadlands |
Saxony wheel wool spinning |
Elaine Yoder |
Ronnie Malley |
Chicago |
Arabic folk songs and music |
Anita Darwish |
Kazuhiro Masuda, aka Shunojo Fujima |
Chicago |
Japanese classical dance – Fujima style |
Rika Lin |
Carlos Mejia |
Chicago |
Guatemalan marimba |
Jennifer L. Ortiz |
Subhadra Natarajan |
Naperville |
Carnatic vocal music |
Achintya Ram |
Pranita Nayar |
Chicago |
Bharatanatyam and Abhinaya |
Hetal Desai |
Zacbe Pichardo |
Chicago |
Jarocho – Mexican harp |
Ignacio Paredes |
Hema Rajagopalan |
Oak Brook |
Bharatanatyam |
Abinaya Ramakrishnan |
Vanitha Veeravalli |
Naperville |
Bharatanatyam |
Tanvi Kulkarni |
The IACA acknowledges ongoing support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
