2016 and 2017Wood carved saints: from Puerto Rico to RI

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Wood carved saints: from Puerto Rico to Rhode Island

2016 and 2017

Southern New England Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program

This project fosters the sharing of traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a master artist from either RI, MA, or CT with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way of knitting together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events of which the master and apprentice artists will perform or demonstrate their results of cooperative learning to public audiences.

The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council, with independent Folklorist Winifred Lambrecht. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Master Artisan from Massachusetts: Mr. Carlos Santiago

Apprentices from Rhode Island: Yidell Rivera and Lydia Perez.