Guidelines and application materials are now available online for the Illinois Arts Council's Ethnic & Folk Arts Master Apprentice Program. Suspended since 2009 as the result of state budget cuts, the IAC is pleased to be able to reinstate the Master Apprentice Program in FY2012 with the aid of funding received from the National Endowment for the Arts Folk Arts Infrastructure grant program.

The Illinois Arts Council and the Master Apprentice Program recognize the vital role of the master artist/apprentice relationship in the preservation of the state's cultural heritage. The IAC's Master Apprentice Program helps communities preserve their own culture by providing an opportunity for master traditional artists to pass on their skills to a qualified apprentice in a time-honored method. Past awards have supported traditional or ethnic art forms as diverse as East Indian dance, split wood baskets, Chinese drum and bell music, fish net making, Ukrainian pysanky, and Illinois fiddle traditions.

Master artists are recognized within their communities as exemplary practitioners of their traditional or ethnic art forms. Apprentices applying to this program should have prior experience in the art form. The Master Apprentice award is a fixed amount of $3,000, awarded to the master artist.

"Illinois is exceptionally rich in cultural heritage," says Terry A. Scrogum, Illinois Arts Council Executive Director. "Ethnic and Folk Arts Master Apprentice Grants help to foster this learning arrangement and sustain the diversity of these traditional art forms."

The deadline for application to the FY12 Ethnic & Folk Arts Master Apprentice Program is March 30, 2012. Guidelines and application materials can be downloaded from the Illinois Arts Council website: www.arts.illinois.gov/MAP. Application materials will not be mailed. For further information about this program, please contact Susan Dickson, Director of Ethnic & Folk Arts, Literature & Presenters Programs, at 312/814-6740, or email susan.dickson@illinois.gov.