The Wyoming Arts Council (WAC) is excited to announce the upcoming airing of a short film, “A Responsibility to Pass It Along: Traditional Arts in Wyoming.”
The film has been adapted to be shared over the span of two episodes of Wyoming PBS’s ongoing series, Wyoming Chronicles. The first episode will air on Friday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. The second episode will air on Friday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. Following the airing, both episodes will be available for streaming at wyomingpbs.org.
“A Responsibility to Pass It Along” is a short film featuring six pairs of recent Folk Art Mentoring Grant recipients. The Wyoming Arts Council’s Folk Art Mentoring Grant supports masters of folk and traditional art forms to spend time over the course of a year passing their specialized and traditional knowledge on to somebody else from their community.
Three mentor and apprentice pairs are featured in each episode, interspersed with short interviews with WAC staff member Josh Chrysler about the Folk Art Mentoring Grant. The film was produced by the Wyoming Arts Council with Laramie-based filmmaker Mike Vanata.
“We are excited about sharing the incredible artistic traditions of Wyoming artists with the public,” says Josh Chrysler, Wyoming Arts Council Folklorist. “The film highlights individuals who are recognized by their communities as being stewards of those artistic traditions, and are now devoting time to ensure that those traditions are carried on, through the act of mentoring others in their community in that knowledge. These art forms are representative of the unique cultural heritage in Wyoming, from Western Saddlemaking, to Eastern Shoshone Eagle Feather Fan Making.”
The film was produced with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, as part of the Wyoming Arts Council’s Folk Arts Program, which aims to identify, document, conserve, and honor folk and traditional arts throughout Wyoming.
For additional information, please contact Josh Chrysler at [email protected], or 307-256-2010.