For More Information, Contact:
Jennifer L. Swain, 570-265-7455

For Immediate Release
April 20, 2009

NTCA Artists & Staff Participate in Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Folk Arts Outreach Project

NTCA artists and staff recently participated in the collaborative project, "Drawing on the Past to Forge a Future on the Family Farm," through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's Folk Arts Outreach program.

Through this project NTCA staff Jennifer Swain and Ruth Tonachel, local farmer Sue Bullock and willow basketweaver Patty Dillman traveled to Canton, NY, from April 1 – 3, 2009, to participate in an exchange program with Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY).

While in Canton, the group offered a series of programs focused on agricultural activity in the Endless Mountains, a region very similar to the New York North Country. Ruth Tonachel, NTCA Program Specialist, presented a public information session on NTCA’s “Year of the Barn” project. Attendees had a chance to view parts of the soon-to-be-released Year of the Barn DVD that documents barns, agricultural life in the Northern Tier and some of the history of agriculture in the Northern Tier.

Willow basket maker Patty Dillman of Tioga County presented a basket making workshop, describing each step in the basket-making process - from harvesting the willow to processing and then finally weaving the willow - all of which she does from a willow crop she established from root stock supplied by a local master artist more 25 years ago. Dillman is a past recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship and an Apprenticeship in Traditional Arts grant to study with master basket maker Bonnie Gale.

Local farmer Sue Bullock, who owns and operates Back Achers Farm, a diversified 82-acre operation in Bradford County, presented information on her farm, from which she sells pasture-raised poultry, pork, beef, and certified organic brown eggs; maple syrup, cream, and candy come from 800 sugar maples on the land. In addition, she talked about the wide variety of produce grown using innovative farm practices and wind energy.

On the final day of the visit, the group traveled to a small, rural high school to participate in an assembly with middle and high school students. Bullock presented information on her farm and talked about her skills as a weaver and how she harvests, processes and weaves with fiber from her own animals. Dillman presented a basket making demonstration and talked about how students could start their own willow crop.

TAUNY is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people understand and appreciate the folk traditions and local culture of everyday life in the North Country. Funding for these presentations was received from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts Infrastructure Partnership.

NTCA serves as one of seven Regional Folk Arts Support Centers in partnership with the PA Council on the Arts (PCA) and the Institute for Cultural Partnerships in a statewide Folk Arts Infrastructure Initiative that seeks “to strengthen awareness and understanding, as well as participation in, traditional arts across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

In support of its mission and the Folk Arts Infrastructure Initiative, NTCA now offers support to artists and community organizations from 10 northern Pennsylvania counties: Bradford, Cameron, Clinton, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wyoming.

For more information about the work of the Northern Tier Cultural Alliance and its mission of "educating the public about cultural traditions, history and art of the Pennsylvania Northern Tier and to assist tradition bearers and traditional artists in the preservation of their work", go to www.ntculturalalliance.org.

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