Michigan Traditional Arts Program

There are many wonderful powwows to attend around our region, and this helpful etiquette guide produced by Sault Tribe Language and Culture will help you attend in respectful and celebratory ways. Find a powwow near you and follow their tips to enjoy one of these events!

The Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival has extended its "Call for Artists" for the festival which will be held October 2-4 in Marquette. The festival is searching for traditional artists of all kinds to present, teach and/or perform at the event in October.

Craftspeople
Musicians
Dancers
Storytellers
Bakers and Cooks

Accepted artists will receive honorariums and travel expenses. To apply, scan the QR code in the attached image or go to https://nmu.edu/beaumierheritagecenter/upff

Congratulations to our friends at Tapology on the funding support they have received for the Tapology Legacy Initiative. We are thrilled to see their good work around traditional African American tap dance continue in the Greater Flint community and beyond!

Material culture offers a way to see what conventional Revolutionary narratives miss: Indigenous endurance, women’s political and artistic labor, and Michigan’s Revolutionary era as a Great Lakes story rather than a mere footnote to events happening on the Atlantic coastline.

Seed beads are an example of material culture tools that made relationships tangible—distributed in councils, worn in public diplomacy, and transformed into gifts that carried memory and obligation. Examining beads reveals a different Revolutionary Michigan, where Indigenous nations shaped the terms of alliance, diplomacy depended on material proof, and the war’s outcomes were not simply decided in 1783 but contested into the 1790s and beyond.

To learn about how glass seed beads functioned as a material form of diplomacy and the importance of beads in Michigan’s indigenous cultures, read the full article in the May/June issue of Michigan History magazine! Learn more at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

We love to see folk and traditional arts apprenticeship programs around the country featured for their good work! Check out this feature from Arts Midwest about the South Dakota Arts Council's program and awardees.

In South Dakota, Apprenticeships Give Traditional Arts a Bright Future Apprenticeships have shaped Tonya Mandy’s path as a traditional arts practitioner and mentor, thanks to a program that ensures centuries-old craft finds new learners.

We will be presenting two workshops at Wheatland Music Organization's annual Traditional Arts Weekend. This first will convene representatives from several of Michigan's folk schools, including Green Door Folk School, Kingsley Folk School, Finnish American Folk School (Finlandia Foundation National, Inc.), and Detroit Folk School.

The second will be about traditional arts apprenticeship programs, featuring past and present participants from our apprenticeship program as well as participants of sibling programs in other states!

There will also be opportunities to learn from, watch, and listen to MTAP artists like Michigan Heritage Awardees Kitty Donohoe, Bruce Bauman, The Costabella Cloggers, and 2026 apprenticeship mentor artists Lindsay McCaw and Budd Greenman, to name a few.

See you there!

2026 Traditional Arts Weekend at Wheatland Music. Become a member for special discounts and early access! https://www.wheatlandmusic.org