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In This Issue:
About Us:
The Alliance for California Traditional Arts promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to thrive now and into the future by providing advocacy, resources, and connections for folk and traditional artists and their communities.
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Funding Opportunities and Other Support
View all funding opportunities...
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 2 B-boy or Not 2 B-boy: Emerging Urban Traditions
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Master breakdancer Raphael Xavier. Photo: Russell C. Rodríguez
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By Russell C. Rodríguez Because of conditions in aggrieved communities of economic abandonment, police brutality, and social marginalization, youth became incredibly creative in developing survival skills, which necessarily included manners to express themselves. Hip-hop was an especially vibrant umbrella of expression that emerged from marginalized communities in New York during the late 1970's. DJ artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, Grand Master Flash, graffitti artists like Lee Quiñones, Zephyr, MinOne, MC's Master Ice, Mister Biggs, and Pow Wow set a context in which B-boys and B-girls like Ken Swift, Richard Colón (aka Crazy Legs), and the Rock Steady Crew could contribute to this powerful aesthetic. Read more... |
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Master Artist, Gilbert "Magu" Lujan, Passes Away
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Master artist Gilbert "Magu" Lujan (left) and his 2008 apprentice Mario Trillo
Photo: ACTA
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Gilbert "Magu" Sanchez Luján, an instrumental artist and sculptor in the Chicano movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, passed away on Sunday, July 24, 2011, after an extended battle with cancer. He was 70 years old. An original member of Los Four, a group of LA artists who helped establish a Chicano aesthetic as part of the Chicano Art Movement, his work examined Mesoamerican mythologies and histories with the intention of merging them with the more contemporary Chicano culture and influence. Magu was particularly well known in the art world for his desire to help showcase lowriders as valid home-grown art forms representing a unique sculptural appeal. Through the course of his life, he made considerable gains in changing both academic and public opinions on how to perceive the inherent artistic composition of the Chicano lowrider.
Magu was a master artist in ACTA's Apprenticeship Program in 2008.
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Former ACTA Apprenticeship Artist Publishes Book
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Carlos Aldama sits with his batá drum. Photo: IU Press
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In 2009, master artist, Carlos Aldama, participated in ACTA's Apprenticeship Program with apprentice Umi Vaughn. The focus of their work together was on the instruction of how to use the three batá drums; as well as the learning of songs, dances, and folktales associated with various drum rhythms; and the mechanic and ritual maintenance of the drums. From their collaborations arose the new book by Umi Vaughn, Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum, which is set to be released in January of 2012 from Indiana University Press. The book is now available to pre-order.
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ACTA Welcomes the New Director of the California Arts Council
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Craig Watson. Photo: Released by CA Arts Council courtesy of Thomas McConville.
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On August 15, 2011, Craig Watson will take over as the Director of the California Arts Council (CAC). His hiring marks the first occasion in the agency's 30 year history that the Council chose its own Director, rather than an appointee being picked by the Governor. ACTA is delighted to continue our longstanding relationship with the CAC by working together with Craig Watson in perpetuating the folk arts and traditions of California. Read more... |
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