Traditional Artist & Culture Bearer Relief Fund
COVID-19 has revealed deep vulnerabilities within many of those we serve. To provide direct support to these artists and culture/heritage practitioners, we’ve launched the Traditional Artist & Culture Bearer Emergency Relief Fund with seed money from the Arizona Commission on the Arts (10K) and individual donors, including over $5000 from community members on Arizona Gives Day and are continuing the campaign to help artists in need. Apply or donate to the fund here.
We are updating a list of additional resources and relief opportunities here.
End-of-life practices in Tucson’s Muslim, Jewish, Chinese, and LGBTQ Communities. (Videos by Cáit Ní Síomón, trailer by Nate McKowen)
Our End of Life: Continuum program shares cultural knowledge about traditions, expressions, and practices associated with end of life, grief, mourning and death in Southern Arizona. Four short short videos explore Tucson’s Muslim, Jewish, Chinese, and LGBTQ communities. The videos were created n collaboration with the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership as educational resources for members of those communities, but hold value for the general public. We hope they invite reflection on end-of-life traditions and encourage you to spend time thinking and planning for that eventuality. A helpful guide for this is here, and additional resources based on SFA documentation and events are here. View all four videos here.
David Yubeta, Adobe Brick Maker. 2019 Awardee. Photo by Steven Meckler
Our annual Master-Apprentice Artist Award support traditional artists and culture bearers working with a qualified apprentice (or group of apprentices) in a teaching-learning relationship. This helps keep cultural practices and communities continuing and thriving. Learn more here.
BorderLore: stories of culture & heritage in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands
Our monthly online journal, BorderLore, aims to document, share, and elevate folklife in the borderlands region (Arizona, New Mexico, southern California, southern Utah, west Texas, and northern Mexico), seeking what is often “hidden in plain view.” By celebrating the “embellished ordinary,” we hope to connect people across culture, tradition, and geography. Read Borderlore here.
Building Capacity
As part of our commitment to cultural transmission and equity, we work with communities and institutions to build capacity in the following ways:
