CFAs: Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant Program 2025 (United States)

The artistic practices that have endured through several generations and reflect a cultural community’s history, heritage or values. The skills are usually learned informally and passed on from one generation to the next by observation and imitation rather than through academic or formal means. Traditional arts are contemporary and change to reflect current events, values and the artists’ aesthetic. A few examples include Lakota games and powwow regalia, Mexican American mariachi music and ballet folkloric dance, Scandinavian weaving, Black Hills woodcarving, Hiddenite crocheted rugs, family quilts, old-time fiddle tunes, and Ethiopian embroidery and drumming, and more.

Funding Information

• Grants up to $5,000 support the continuation of time-honored skills that are vital to strengthening cultural communities across the state.

Eligibility Criteria

• Grants support between 100 and 120 hours of instruction over a 6-to 12-month period.
• Apprentice(s) must reside in the state of South Dakota or within the borders of the state’s nine federally recognized Tribal reservations for at least one year at the start of the grant (July 1, 2023) and remain a resident through the end of the grant (June 30, 2024). The master artist may reside in South Dakota or a nearby state. (In the case of an out-of-state master artist, all payments will be made to the in-state apprentice, who is then responsible for paying the master’s fee.)
• Apprentice(s) must be at least eighteen and cannot be pursuing a high school diploma, or graduate, undergraduate, or professional degree.
• Master Artist and Apprentice(s) can only apply for one grant per cycle.

Ineligibility Criteria

• South Dakota Arts Council board members and staff cannot apply for this grant.
• Applications cannot include more than 3 apprentices.

Review Criteria

Panelists use the following criteria to evaluate the artistic excellence and artistic merit of applications:

• Artistic Excellence:
  • Artistic excellence is evaluated based on the:
    • Quality of the artist’s record of work and/or work that the artist wants to do and the relevance to the artist’s career.
    • Panelists assess the work samples/support materials as they relate to the proposed work to determine artistic excellence.
• Artistic Merit:
  • Proposed work is relevant to the master artist, apprentice, and shared community.
  • What is the impact of the proposed work, for example, how committed are both artists to the continuation of the practice in their shared community?
  • How feasible is the work plan and does the budget/narrative responses reflect a well-planned scope of work?

For more information, visit South Dakota Arts Council.