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Sophiline Cheam Shapiro
Sometimes when a people survive the greatest of tragedies, art and culture is the first thing they turn to in order to continue. Although 90 percent of all Cambodian classical artists perished between 1975 and 1979 after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, those who did survive wandered out from…
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Chue Doua Xiong
When Hmong families are joined by marriage, a complicated tradition of rituals are observed that resolves any existing problems between the clans and sets new rules for the future. The ritual defines relationships between people and is important in maintaining harmony in Hmong society. It is just as important in…
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Crispulo Atillo
Crispulo Atillo is a Grandmaster of eskrima, a non-aggressive, weapons-based martial art rooted in Filipino history and culture. Great Grandmaster Atillo began studying eskrima as a teenager with his father and with Great Grandmaster Teodoro Saavedra. He was a master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2006 with apprentice, Red Dagum. *** From…
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Holly Hensher
In 2006, master artist Holly Hensher taught apprentice Paula Allen to make a Karuk women’s maple bark skirt. Used in tribal ceremonies, Karuk women’s maple bark skirts are made from the innermost layer of bark of the big leaf maple trees found within the Karuk ancestral territories. Hensher began weaving…
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David Chen
David Chen is a former choreographer and dance instructor of the Shanghai Opera and Dance Theatre. In his forty-year dance career, he performed numerous dances, as well as choreographed over thirty dances including such notable pieces as “Pantheon of Chinese Gods”, “Heroine Hua Mulan”, “Armor of the King” and “Peach-Flower…
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Glenn Moore, Sr.
Master artist Glenn Moore, Sr. taught his grandson, Glenn Moore, Jr. to make a Yurok hand-carved redwood dugout canoe as part of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2006. Used in Yurok and Hoopa ceremonies, master and apprentice carved the canoe from an old-growth redwood tree. Glenn Moore Sr. learned to carve canoes…
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Luwana Quitiquit
ACTA is deeply saddened to learn of Luwana Quitiquit’s passing in December of 2011. *** “It’s really important to be able to focus on your basket. If you aren’t in that positive space and you are working on a basket every little mistake that you make is pretty much an…
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Mohammad Nejad
Mohammad Nejad, a Persian-born master multi-instrumentalist, was born to a musical family in Tehran, Iran. As a young child, Persian classical music was passed down to him from his father. In Tehran he attended a special high school for musicians, later graduating from Fine Arts Academy in 1976, and in…
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Houman Pourmehdi
Houman Pourmehdi is a master percussionist, well known for his diverse abilities as a musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, performing and recording in numerous ensembles and at a variety of venues. He was introduced to Persian music by his father, and received his first Tonbak at the age of three from…
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Katsuko Teruya Arakawa
Gardena-based master kutuu player Katsuko Teruya Arakawa served as a master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2008 with apprentice Pamela Joy Afuso of Los Angeles. The Okinawan kutuu, more commonly known elsewhere in Japan as the koto, is a thirteen-stringed Paulownia wood zither played by…
