Three Warm Springs artists have been included in a list of 15 traditional artists receiving grants from the Oregon Arts Commission.
Each Oregon artist will receive $5,000 through the Traditional Arts Recovery Program, which is a partnership between the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Folklife Network.
The program seeks to support artists who use a variety of art forms to express Oregon’s diverse ethnic, sacred, occupational, Native American, tribal and regional cultural arts.
Warm Springs food gatherer and Jefferson County School District board member Laurie Danzuka was one of the recipients, chosen for her work sustaining cultural food practices by teaching others the traditional ways to identify, gather and prepare first foods.
Wasq’u beader Roberta Joy Kirk will design and bead a headpiece and bag while teaching this technique to her granddaughters and others in a specialized class for the Museum at Warm Springs.
Wasq’u dressmaker Valerie Switzler will teach community sewing classes while documenting the history and stories that accompany the traditional process.
The program is funded by the Oregon Arts Commissions, the Oregon Folklife Network, and the National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
