Says co-founder Sam Edwards, ““Lyvonne and I recognized the great absence of efforts to preserve Negro spirituals in the culture of local communities.  The goal was and always has been to educate the public on what we call the Negro spirituals folksongs—’the family jewels’ handed down from 1865 to keep alive the power they have, the ways the slaves used them for their survival, by voicing the sentiments that carried the spirit of protest, religion, of celebration, and reinforced them in the community.  That was the motivation behind our getting started.”

In 2007, Friends of Negro Spirituals received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to support In Our Own Words, a project documenting the art of spirituals through the activities of community sing-alongs, quarterly workshops, and interviews with lay and community leaders.  Friends of Negro Spirituals promoted and cultivated culture bearers while recording the oral history of 10 singers and musicians in the Bay Area community.

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Living Cultures Grant Program

2021

In 2021, a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grant Program will support the development of a digital Cambodian dance legacy library, consisting of dances from the classical repertory, new works Charya Burt has created, and instructional videos on classical dance and costuming. As this will be a resource for both Charya Burt Cambodian Dance and Cambodian dance communities throughout California, they will also create specific age and ability curriculums with support videos and will provide limited online workshops and consultations.

2007

In 2007, the company received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to support the premiere of a new work,  Princesses and Peacocks: An Exploration of Cambodian Classical and Folk Dance.  The production was in collaboration with the Khmer Arts Academy of Long Beach.

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In 2007, the company received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to support a full-length concert production, El Camino de un Artista – The Pathway of an Artist, commemorating 40 years of Carolina Lugo’s exploration into the full spectrum of flamenco and Spanish dance.  The concerts and educational outreach concerts for school-age children featured guest artists from Spain.

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Textile art transcends cultural, ethnic, age, and gender boundaries and encompasses traditional as well as contemporary forms.  The museum provides a serious venue for all artists working with textiles, filling a void left by larger institutions with a narrower view of what defines artistic expression.  Its exhibits and programs promote the appreciation of quilts and textiles as art and provide an understanding of their role in the lives of their makers, in cultural traditions, and as historical documents.  The museum was founding in 1977 by the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association as the first museum of its kind in the United States.

In 2007, the museum received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to support their Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory traveling exhibit.  The exhibit highlighted textiles created by people in Afghanistan/Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Chile, Peru, Israel, Egypt, the Caucasus, and South Africa who have begun incorporating pictorial images of violence and war into traditional art forms that previously included mostly abstract patterns.  The museum worked with local social service agencies and cultural organizations to plan and implement a series of public programs in connection with this exhibit, including artists demonstrations, performances, and panel discussions on the vital role of folk arts and how people respond to and cope with experiences of war.

As a participant in ACTA’s Traditional Arts Development Program in 2002, the museum completed a needs assessment and documentation of traditional skills among members of San Jose-area refugee communities by Musa Kamara, Director of the African Refugree Community Serives.  The project is a first step in the creation of a Tech-Style Arts Apprenticeship Program to help Santa Clara County refugees adapt their traditional needle and fiber art skills to a contemporary Bay Area market and ease their transition into life in the Silicon Valley by introducing them to computerized sewing machines, quilting machines, and looms.

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SFIAF was founded in 2002 by arts presenter Andrew Wood and has since produced an annual festival that have included multiple San Francisco-based arts organizations working togehter to produce each festival event.  SFIAF has featured both contemporary and traditional artists, as well as combinations of both.

In 2007, SFIAF received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to support their 4th annual festival, The Truth in Knowing/Now, A Conversation Across Africa and the Diaspora. The grant supported the performance and community residence activities of Ayanagalu, a traditional Yoruban music and dance performance group from Nigeria.  This troupe is comprised of dancers, masqueraders, and praise singers who have passed down their skills and knowledge from generation to generation.  The project included master classes at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco, as well as a performance for middle school students.

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In 2007, PICC received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to support their 18th Annual Pacific Islander Festival.  Each year this festival focuses on particular island cultures; the 18th annual festival focused on the Maori communities from Aoteroa (New Zealand) and Cook Islands.  There were displays and performances of traditional dance and music, cultural arts, (weaving, flower craft, and tattooing), historical artifacts, and foodways.

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Their perofrmances reflect key political and historical messages, with particular relevance to their communities.  Their large-scale costumes have evolved from the bulky, inflexible metal frameworks or floats that typify the art form to more elaborate kinetic puppet structures utilizing and magnifying the natural movements of the human puppet master, allowing the fifteen-foot-tall puppets to literally dance.

Mas Makers Massive was founded by Stephen Tiffenson, a Trinidadian native who migrated to the Unisted States over twenty years ago.  Upon his arrival in the U.S., he sought fellow Trinidadians nostalgic for their culture and formed Mas Makers to produce costumes for local Carnival celebrations.  Mas Makers Massive is now led by Stephen Tiffenson, band leader; Kyle Hill, artistic director; and Linda Johnson, master choreographer.

In 2012, Mas Makers Massive received support from  ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program  for Steelpan Rising, a multifaceted production of instructional workshops, spoken word, and dance culminating in performance by steelpan virtuoso Robert Greenridge and Bay Area steelpan musicians, as well as a showcase tracing the evolution and development of the instrument which was invented in the 20th century.

In 2008, as participants in ACTA’s Traditional Arts Development Program, web designer Yvonne Murphy was contracted to build a professional website for Mas Makers Massive, increasing the organization’s marketing potential.

In 2007, Mas Makers Massive received support from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program for a two day symposium entitled Calypso Journey, exploring Trinidad and Tobago’s musical genre.  A series of interactive workshops culminated in a musical performance to explore and display the multifaceted history and aesthetics of calypso in the 20th century.  Hollis Urban Liverpool, director of the Carnival Institute from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, was a featured speaker.  Rudolph Ottley, researcher and author of books on women in Calypso; Brother Resistance, international performer and lecturer in the genre of spoken calypso rapso; and Joanne Rowley, international calypso performer, were among other participants.

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In 2007, the Cultural Heritage Choir received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program to support a collaboration with English acapella choir, Black Voices, on a project called “A Long Way Home.”  This collaboration explored the musical legacy of the slave trade from Africa, through the Caribbean to the New World.  Outreach activities with local African American choirs culminated in performances in May 2007.

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In 2007, as a grantee of ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program, KYCC received support for their annual Jishinbalpki, or Korean Lunar New Year, celebration.  This event, or great historical and ritual importance, brings together young and old in the Korean community, including recent immigrants, to honor and preserve their cultureal heritage.

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In 1997, Ali Akbar Khan received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor for traditional artists.

In 2011, a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program provided funding for the college to work intensively with a group of teens, ages 13-19.  Sarod was taught by AACM-trained teacher Bruce Hamm.  Under the direction of master tabla musician and percussion director Pandit Swapan Chaudari, this initiative launched the institution’s special outreach to teen students.

In 2007, to mark the 85th birthday of Ali Akbar Khan and the college’s 40th anniversary, a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program supported concert performances by the school’s master artists, the archiving of historic documents, and the development of web-based learning courses.

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