Native American Stories of Washington

Native American Stories of Washington is a project designed to document and preserve stories and legends as told by some of Washington state’s important Native American tradition bearers. The project has released CD recordings that are now available to the public. Learn more...

Building New Audiences for Traditional Arts in Washington’s Underserved Communities

This is a new project for Northwest Heritage Resources, funded in part with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.  The first 3 programs in our series features:

Scottish traditional fiddler Ryan McKasson with Dave Bartley on guitar

Friday, October 7, 2011 – 1:15 – 2:15pm.
School program at Index School. 

Friday, October 7, 2011 – 7:00pm.
Concert of Scottish traditional music at The River House in Index.

Saturday, October 8, 2011 – 1:00pm.
Concert of Scottish traditional music at Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center in Entiat (97A)

The concerts will benefit the Index Historical Society and Columbia Breaks Fires Interpretive Center.

Korean Traditional Artist-in-Residence

From late March – July 2011 Northwest Heritage Resources hosted Korean traditional musician Young Sub Lee for a 4 month artist residency in western Washington. Young Sub Lee’s residency was supported by the Korean Traditional Performing Arts Foundation.

Young Sub Lee is an exceptionally talented performer of the daegeum, a Korean traditional transverse bamboo flute.  He is also a highly skilled player of the taepyeongso (Korean conical oboe), the danso (vertical bamboo flute)  and the janggu (hourglass-shaped drum).  During his residency he taught danso, daegeum, and janggu to students of the Ethnomusicology Department at the University of Washington and gave a series of concerts and workshops in Seattle and Tacoma.

From September – December 2009 Northwest Heritage Resources hosted Korean traditional musician Bora Ju for a four month artist residency in western Washington. Bora Ju’s residency was supported by The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea.

Bora Ju is an exceptionally talented performer of the gayageum, a Korean traditional plucked zither. During her residency she taught gayageum to students of the Ethnomusicology Department at the University of Washington and gave a series of concerts and workshops in Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia.

Traditional Arts Programs in Washington State Parks

Starting in 2005, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, in collaboration with the Washington State Arts Commission established a Folk & Traditional Arts in the Parks Program at Washington State Parks that organized a wide range of traditional arts concerts, artist demonstrations, festivals and other events for state parks located throughout Washington state.  The programs have included Native American Cultural Days, Latino Folk Arts Festivals, gospel, bluegrass, and Celtic music concerts, Arab-American Cultural Days, storytelling events and much more. Many of the programs are FREE to the public.

For more information about these wonderful programs, see:  www.parks.wa.gov/events Or contact: Jens Lund, Folk & Traditional Arts Program Coordinator, Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission;
jens.lund@parks.wa.gov; 360-902-8526.

Finnish folk artist honored

We are proud to announce that Finnish traditional artist, Wilho Saari was honored in 2006 with a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.
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