Innovation in Tradition: VTAAP 30th Anniversary

During 2022 we are celebrating 30 years of Innovation in Tradition by looking back on how our Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP) has both sustained and advanced traditional arts in Vermont over the last three decades.

Join us in Celebrating the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program throughout 2022!

With support from the Vermont Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts VTAAP began in 1992 to support Vermont’s living cultural heritage. The program assists master artists of traditional and folk arts in passing on their knowledge and skills by bringing together those who share a commitment to keeping traditional cultural expressions vital and relevant.

During the past 30 years, Vermont Folklife Center has supported over 350 apprenticeships representing everything from the arts of native Abenaki and of English, French, Polish and Irish immigrants, to those of Lao, Somali Bantu, Congolese, Bosnian, Tibetan and Bhutanese Nepali refugee communities. These art forms reflect the cultural history, values, and aesthetics of the groups that practice them, helping to shape identity and support both individual and community wellbeing.