Passing It Down: Helping Young People Learn Traditional Arts.

TAPS programs are uniquely shaped by their communities. Students learn the traditional arts of their own region, from teachers within their community. Music is taught by ear, and crafts are taught by hand.

Traditional arts remain the bedrock of cultural life in many communities in North Carolina. Local and regional music, dance, craft, and narrative traditions provide residents with a sense of identity and pride.

The North Carolina Arts Foundation is helping young people who are interested in learning traditional arts. We support a rising generation of musicians, dancers, and crafts artists in western North Carolina by assisting the North Carolina Arts Council with In These Mountains, which offers apprenticeships and afterschool programs.

Traditional Arts Program for Students, an initiative of the Folklife Program of the Arts Council, provides community organizations with funding for after-school programs that unite North Carolina elementary and middle school students with traditional artists who provide instruction in art forms that have deep cultural roots in the local community.