THE ART OF SAINTS CARVING
2017
Lydia Perez and Yiyi Rivera, Apprentices 2015
Made by Yidell Rivera aprendices
Carlos Santiago, Master
Winifred Lambrecht, Folklore Artists Leader and Lynne Willianson, Executive Director of Connecticut Historical, Society and Museums.
Private Collection
Private Collection
Traditional Saints and free Expression from Puerto Rico to Rhode Island
Under The Southern New England Traditional Arts apprenticeship program, (SNETAAP), Master/artisan Carlos Santiago from Massachusetts transfers his knowledge to the apprentices Lydia Perez and Yidell Rivera; all of Puerto Rican heritage. The project began in January and ran through June 2016 with a great public event held on September 2016.
This project fosters the sharing of traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a master artist from either RI, MA, or CT with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way of knitting together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events of which the master and apprentice artists will perform or demonstrate their results of cooperative learning to public audiences.
The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council, with independent Folklorist Winifred Lambrecht.
primary funding for this amazing program came from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The event was sponsored by Puerto Rican Institute for the Arts and Advocacy, Inc. (PRIAA)
in collaboration with Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA)
