Annual Award for Traditional Artists and Culture Bearers in Arizona Seeks Nominations

Tucson, AZ – The Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA), an affiliate of the University of Arizona’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the organizer of the Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival, seeks nominations of traditional artists and culture bearers for its annual Master-Apprentice Award program. SFA will grant ten awards to Arizona-based traditional artists and culture bearers—$5,000 to the Master artist and $500 to the apprentice—to support the transmission of traditional knowledge in Arizona. The selected pairs will collaborate for one year.

Artists are nominated by peers, cultural institutions, apprentices, or through self-nomination. They are selected by a panel based on their knowledge, dedication, and commitment to passing on living traditions from our region and beyond. Applicants may come from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to:

Artwork, Material Arts: Weaving, basketry, jewelry, mask making, ritual objects, textiles
Occupational Folklife: Adobe, leatherwork, ironwork, foodways
Oral Traditions: Storytelling, spoken word, ceremonial practices
Performing Arts: Dance, singing, music

The Master-Apprentice Award Program is the first award program of its kind in Arizona. It is supported by individual donors and the Arizona Commission on the Arts through a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) State Partnership Agreement. SFA joins over 30 Master-Apprentice award programs across the nation.

The program affirms the organization’s commitment to individual heritage-based artists, economic development, and the transmission of cultural knowledge.
“This award has supported nearly one hundred Arizona artists and their apprentices in the past decade to carry on cultural artforms and traditions. At the Southwest Folklife Alliance, we believe this kind of creative transmission is the heart of keeping a multiplicity of cultures alive,” says Denise Uyehara, SFA’s program manager in artist service.

The deadline to nominate artists is April 30, 2026. Information about how to nominate artists can be found here: https://southwestfolklife.org/master-apprentice-artist-program/

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The Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA) is an affiliate non-profit organization of the University of Arizona in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the official state-designated folk arts partner of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the parent-producing agent of the annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival. The organization offers yearlong programs that celebrates and preserves the art, culture, heritage, foodways, and folklife of the borderlands region.