Weaving the Future: The First Taproot Fellows Gathering in Washington, D.C.

In June 2025, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) hosted a national convening in Washington, D.C., bringing together nearly 50 traditional artists from across the United States and its territories. The gathering marked the first in-person meeting of Taproot Fellows from both the 2024 and 2025 cohorts—an unprecedented opportunity to build relationships, exchange knowledge, and strengthen a growing national network of traditional artists working at the intersections of culture, health, justice, and community resilience.

The Taproot Fellowship is a flagship initiative of ACTA’s Taproot Artists & Community Trust, funded by the Mellon Foundation. It provides catalytic support for traditional artists and culture bearers across the U.S., each of whom receives $50,000 in unrestricted funding and an additional $10,000 for community-focused initiatives. Over the course of two years, the program will distribute $3 million directly to artists, along with tailored support and visibility efforts designed to strengthen cultural ecosystems and transmission at the grassroots level.

Taproot Fellows painting ceramic arbolitos with Verónica Castillo, making a participatory mural with Pedro Adorno Irizarry, and crafting a bookmark from ash wood and sweetgrass with Theresa Secord.
Photos: Candace Dane Chambers/ACTA.

At a time when public support for cultural equity and racial justice is increasingly under threat, the Taproot Fellowship represents a major national investment in cultural infrastructure. The artists supported by the program are not only practitioners of traditional forms—they are intergenerational teachers, public historians, healers, and leaders within their communities.

The Taproot Fellows Gathering

The convening took place over three days and included a thoughtfully curated series of activities informed by a volunteer committee of Fellows, designed to foster cross-cultural exchange, relationship-building, and reflection. After a roomy half day of introductions, Fellows participated in peer-led workshops that highlighted the breadth and depth of traditional arts across regions. Penobscot basketmaker from Maine, Theresa Secord, led a hands-on session in ash wood and sweetgrass bookmark weaving; San Antonio-based ceramicist Verónica Castillo offered a workshop in painting ceramic arbolitos, a vibrant Mexican folk art form; and taiko artists PJ and Roy Hirabayashi, co-founders of San Jose Taiko, led participants in a circle dance grounded in Japanese American rhythms and movement.

In a separate session, Wisconsin-based Haudenosaunee raised beadworker Karen Ann Hoffman guided participants in making traditional strawberry pincushions, while Georgia blues musician Jontavious Willis offered an immersive workshop on the roots and range of the blues, in collaboration with Chicago harmonica player Billy Branch. Puerto Rican theater artist Pedro Adorno Irizarry, co-founder of Agua, Sol y Sereno, facilitated an experimental session exploring “the encounter” through collective movement and performance.