Maryland Traditions Partnership

MARYLAND TRADITIONS PARTNERSHIP
The NCTA currently produces two annual folklife events for Maryland Traditions, is developing an educational initiative, and engages in fieldwork to inform its various programs:

Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival – a daylong celebration featuring Maryland’s master traditional performing artists, craftspeople and other tradition-bearers, with 13-15 performing groups, narrative presentations, hands-on workshops, children’s activities, demonstrations of craft and occupational traditions, and local and regional food specialties.

Achievement in Living Traditions and Arts (ALTA) Awards – Each year this award is given in three categories to honor an individual, a place and a tradition for outstanding stewardship of the state’s traditions.  A tribute to Maryland’s National Heritage Fellows is often a part of this event.

Maryland Traditions in the Schools – This program is designed to bring the state’s living cultural treasures, its master traditional artists, into Maryland schools, beginning with a pilot program in Montgomery County in 2012, and a Blues in the Schools program Prince George’s County schools currently in development.

Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Fieldwork – NCTA conducts ongoing fieldwork to identify master artists for potential participation in the Maryland Traditions’ Apprenticeship Award Program.

Ola Belle Reed recordings – The NCTA is working with Maryland Traditions to preserve and digitize endangered Ola Belle Reed recordings now housed in the NCTA’s climate-controlled archive for safekeeping. This great Appalachian balladeer, clawhammer banjo player and songwriter, who made her home in Cecil County, played a central role in the revival of interest in old-time and bluegrass music that began in the 1960s.