Hawai`i Craftsmen has established a project in
partnership with The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Folk
Art Program. The purpose of the project is to create an accessible
video archive of Hawai`i’s living folk arts masters and their arts
for artists and craftspeople, scholars and researchers, teachers
and students, and interested citizens.
Many of Hawai`i’s most
authentic and gifted tradition-bearers are now in their later
years and live in rural areas. As the pace of technology and
social change accelerates, we find that many of these masters are
the last living embodiments of lifestyles, community values,
languages, and skills from eras never to be seen again. Because
Hawai`i is extraordinarily rich in ethnically distinct communities
which also combine to form a subculture unique in American
society, it is especially important to to video document local
traditional artists.
Furthermore, the materials gathered in this archive will serve
as a basis from which to create edited documentaries for
broadcast and the Internet, for use in the classroom, and for
presentations to the general public.
Initial artists for
documentation include Peter Park, a knowledgeable 82-year old lauhala weaver on the big island and Wright Bowman Sr., 92 years
old and a premier Hawaiian wood craftsmen of boat, agricultural
implements and ritual objects. Other folk arts masters work in
the areas of hula, storytelling, Cantonese opera, saddle making,
fish nets and lauhala hats will be considered for documentation.
Financial Support Received for Living Masters Video
Documentation Project
Hawai`i Craftsmen and the Folk Arts Program at the State
Foundation on Culture and the Arts have begun the process of
creating an accessible video archive for Hawai`i's living masters
and their arts. The archive will be for artists and craftspeople,
scholars and researchers, teachers and students and interested
citizens.
The materials gathered in this archive serve as a basis
from which to create edited video documentation for broadcast and
the Internet, for use in the classroom, and for presentations to
the general public. Project director Michael Schuster says, "To
create such an archive is a large task, and an essential task,
because who we are and where we come from permeate every aspect
of our life".
Hawai`i Craftsmen recently received three grants for the project:
National Endowment for the Arts-$10,000, Cooke Foundation-$7,000
and Atherton Family Foundation-$5,000. We are very honored to be
a part of this project that will inform and inspire for many
generations to come.
Click here
for a description of the videos available