By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The Center for Washington Cultural Traditions is excited to announce its new apprenticeship pairs for the 2024-2025 Heritage Arts Apprenticeship Program (HAAP). This program, dedicated to preserving traditional arts, crafts, and skills, plays a vital role in sustaining cultural traditions across Washington state that are important to different communities. Each skilled master artist will mentor an apprentice for at least 100 hours of one-on-one time throughout the program year.
The HAAP offers grant money to support a collection of 16 teams of artists and culture bearers, preserving traditional skills across Washington state and transferring their knowledge not only to participating apprentices but to society as a whole, with the goal of making traditional arts and skills more appreciated by the public. Now entering its seventh year, HAAP received a record number of 50 applications this year, bringing the total number of participants to over 130 people.
“The Heritage Apprenticeship Program is designed for the contextual transfer of traditional knowledge, skills, or art from one master artist to one or two apprentices, who ideally are very advanced students, bordering on mastery themselves,” says Thomas Grant Richardson, director of the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions. “The program offers grant money, as well as staff from the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions to know and document their work, finding a way to turn those private moments into a better understanding and acknowledgment from the wider public.”
One of the collections that HAAP is supporting this year is quilting. Quilting is a beloved tradition in many cultures, but it is especially significant to Black culture in the United States. Enslaved people used quilting to maintain connections to their African roots. The African American quilting team, led by master artist Brenetta Ward, who is one of the 16 teams participating in HAAP this year, uses the project to focus on techniques developed by Black quilters, and the team will collaboratively complete a community-based cultural story cloth.
“This is the first time we have had a quilting team in the program, which is really exciting,” says Richardson. “Quilting is obviously a bedrock of traditional arts, and Black quilting has distinct aspects to it.”
As a third-generation quilter, Ward emphasizes that quilting is a part of her heritage and identity, and she utilizes her traditional quilting techniques, ethnic fabrics, and African design aesthetics to create unique quilted legacies.
“My maternal grandmother was born and raised in Monroe County, Mississippi. She made quilts to keep you warm; quilts to heal your illnesses; and quilts to ward off evil spirits. She then taught her daughter to quilt,” says Ward. “My maternal aunt made utilitarian quilts to keep you warm, special occasion quilts to celebrate events, and keepsake quilts to sell at church bazaars. She then taught her niece to quilt.”
“As a child growing up in St. Louis, MO, my aunt taught me traditional piecing and hand quilting,” continues Ward. “As an adult, I make contemporary quilts to keep you warm; quilts that tell cultural stories; and fiber art that celebrates the spirit of the cloth.”
While Ward acknowledges that her quilting process may not be uniquely “Black,” she is eager to see how the project evolves over the year. She also believes that the tradition of quilting in the Black community is universal and carries the memories of families and legacies, as the African American quilting tradition dates back to colonial times and continues today.
“Quilting in the African American community is important as a form of individual creativity and as a tool for collective education,” says Ward. “Our quilts are as varied and diverse as the women and men who create them. The imagery in our quilts ranges from African-inspired patterns to memories of our youth; from intense social and political issues to the beauty of nature that surrounds us.”
JeLisa Marshall, an apprentice for the African American Quilting Team, says that she is eager to learn more about quilting and how she can use it to further connect with her culture.
“I want to learn this tradition to carry it on not only within my family but also in the Black community because, as Maya Angelou says, ‘You can’t really know where you’re going until you know where you have been.’ Quilts aid in that process,” says Marshall. “Stories are embedded in every fabric, thread, and pattern to keep families connected.”
“In addition to learning Black quilting traditions, I am also researching Indigenous design as a doctoral student to explore ways to create more regenerative systems in fashion product development, specifically to address cultural appropriation and waste colonialism, and I am eager to discover how or if this tradition can provide a pathway forward,” adds Marshall.
Many participants in the HAAP have been given valuable opportunities to connect with their past and foster connections with other communities today while receiving support from the HAAP itself.
“This program is important because it both financially and humanly supports the kinds of in-community arts that are less frequently celebrated and funded. These traditions aren’t necessarily private, but neither are they for a large audience,” says Richardson.
Typically, traditional practitioners, those actively involved in specific arts or disciplines, often face challenges due to limited resources and networks, putting their skills and years of tradition at risk. The HAAP not only helps preserve these skills and generate income for practitioners but also equips apprentices with leadership skills to advocate for their communities.
“The Heritage Arts Apprenticeship Program opens the door for us all to see the work and lives of these extraordinary artists and better understand the diverse cultures within Washington,” says Richardson.
For more information about participants, their traditions, and their progress throughout the year, visit waculture.org. The Heritage Arts Apprenticeship Program will culminate in a free event to introduce the public to these unique cultural traditions. The date and time for this event will be announced soon. The Center for Washington Cultural Traditions is managed through a partnership between ArtsWA and Humanities Washington.