Program Details
Building long-term relationships and trust with partner communities is the cornerstone of CHAP's work. Fieldwork research that includes participation in community events, informal conversation, taped interviews, photography, and discussion provides the basis for project development, which is done collaboratively between CHAP staff and community members. The program aims to represent the vibrant diversity of the state's ethnic and occupational communities and encourage the preservation and transmission of knowledge held within the community through its artists and other cultural caretakers. CHAP's projects often use traditional arts to examine the social, economic and cultural concerns faced by member communities. CHAP has located and documented over 160 visual and performing artists, along with 75 ethnic and community organizations from over half of the 125 groups currently represented in the state's population, including Southeast Asian, Tibetan, Greek, Native American, Norwegian, Portuguese, Peruvian, Cape Verdean, Polish, and Puerto Rican communities. Current CHAP projects include: new folks arts in education initiatives; cross-state apprenticeship opportunities with traditional arts masters in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts; summer workshops for adults to learn traditional art forms; and improving accessibility of the program's collected archive of information and images from artists and their communities.