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 We Call It Medicine: ACTA Gathers Bay Area Artists
 | Jenny Bawer Young (left) is a master weaver from the Kalinga tribe of the Philippines. Her apprentice, Holly Calica (right), is dressed in traditional dress. They have worked this past year on backstrap loom techniques to create the dance belt worn by Holly in this photo. Photo: Kutay Kugay
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In ACTA's calendar year, one highlight is the opportunity to convene our current grantees. In an informal setting, we invite artists and administrators to meet one another, share their art forms, and to speak first-hand about the successes and challenges of practicing their art. On June 24th, 2012, a group of Bay Area grantees from the Living Cultures Grants, Apprenticeship, and Traditional Arts Development Programs met on a Sunday afternoon, along with ACTA staff and Frances Phillips of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, for conversation and art-making.
Visit ACTA's website to learn more.
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Upcoming La Mesa Session of ACTA's Traditional Arts Roundtable Series
Join ACTA staff and fellow traditional artists for the next La Mesa session of ACTA's Traditional Arts Roundtable series on Monday, August 27, 2012, at Gamelan Sekar Jaya in Berkeley. During La Mesa: Adornment: Traditional Arts & the Natural World, demonstrations and conversation will be led by mentor artists from several cultural communities as we consider how traditional arts practice is inextricably bound to cycles of nature and the environment. Visit ACTA's website for more information. |
New Documentary Highlights the Garifuna Wanarauga Celebration in Los Angeles
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Two Wanaragua dancers sharing in the driveway of the home of a Garifuna community member during Christmas 2010.
Photo: Francis Estrada
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"Since the mid-1970s, the rhythms of drummers such as Mingo Alvarez and Ruben Reyes have resonated throughout Los Angeles neighborhoods, stating to a specific group of people from places such as Dangringa, Belize; La Buga, Guatemala; and Trujillo, Honduras; that Garifuna are here! The video Wanaragua in Los Angeles 2012 is an affirmation of the presence and energy that the Garifuna community contributes to the cultural fabric of Los Angeles and US society as a whole." Visit ACTA's website to read ACTA Program Manager Russell Rodriguez' review of this new documentary.
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| ACTA's Work with Small Arts Organizations Highlighted in Grantmakers in the Arts Reader
In a recent article published in the Grantmakers in the Arts Reader, ACTA Executive Director Amy Kitchener and co-author Ann Markusen explore "how small arts nonprofits are undercounted, how broad ranging, sustainable, and valuable they are, and how they differ from larger organizations." Learning from their joint field research on small organizations for of the James Irvine Foundation-funded report California's Arts and Cultural Ecology (2011) and ACTA's participation in the Community Leadership Project, Amy and Ann share "ways that funders can better work with smaller arts nonprofits to further their missions," urging "philanthropy to nurture a fuller range of artistic expression in our contemporary world."
Visit the GIA's website to read Working with Small Arts Organizations: How and Why It Matters.
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