The Master-Apprentice Artist Award provides direct support for master traditional artists living in Arizona to pass on art, culture, and heritage practices to apprentice learners. The goal of this award is to strengthen the transmission of community-based traditions throughout the Southwestern United States. This award supports a master artist or tradition bearer to work with a qualified apprentice to engage in a teaching-learning relationship that includes one-on-one mentorship and hands-on experience. Funds can be used to help cover artist fees, offset costs of raw materials, and support any travel essential to the exchange. Traditional master artists and culture bearers receive $5,000; apprentices receive $500. 
 
Our highest priority is to support pairings of masters and their apprentices who share the same cultural identities, or who work/live within the same cultural community. We uplift this priority to try to avoid instances of cultural appropriation that harm cultural communities. However, we understand that culture is fluid and dynamic and that, in some cases, cross-cultural learning can involve circumstances and social identities that escape pre-fixed categories. Above all considerations, our awards seek to recognize sincere and transparent processes of cultural transmission and innovation that are grounded in authentic community relations of kinship, friendship, solidarity, and/or learning. Applicants are asked to demonstrate this through life experiences and meaningful networks of care, respect, and study, not simply by defaulting to an ethnicity or identity. 
 
Artists are first nominated by peers within their community, cultural institutions, apprentices, or by self-nomination. SFA determines which artists are invited to full application, based on their mastery of an art form, their ability to describe how that form has been recognized by their cultural community, and their ability to share traditional knowledge. 

Applicants include a wide variety of artists, including those working in traditions including, but not limited to:  

• Handcrafts: weavers, basket makers, jewelers, makers of masks, ritual objects, textiles  
• Occupational folklife: adobe makers, leather workers, ironworkers, foodways workers  
• Oral traditions: storytellers, poets  
• Performing arts: dancers, vocalists, musicians   

Applicant Eligibility  

• Applicants (master artists and apprentices) must reside in Arizona.  
• Apprentices should be at least 16 years of age (can be younger if they are an immediate family member of the Master Artist).  
• The art form must be traditional in nature, as per SFA's definition of traditional art.  
• Applicants must be United States citizens, lawful permanent residents, or have permission from the U.S. Department of Immigration to work in the U.S.  
• All applicants must have been full-time residents of Arizona for at least one full year before applying and must remain residents of Arizona for the award year.  
• Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. Practitioners are generally part of the same cultural community, with a focus on informally taught traditions rather than formal instruction or institutional education.  
   

Apprentice Eligibility

• Should have at least an intermediate-level experience in the art form.  
• Must be at least 16 years of age unless they are a child or immediate family member of the applying artist.  
• Should demonstrate a high level of potential to become a master artist, and a commitment to the apprenticeship's demands.  
• Priorities are given to masters and apprentices within the same cultural community, and to underrepresented traditional art forms with few remaining local practitioners.  
• Apprentices do not need to be named until the artist is invited to the full application process.  
   

Repeat Awardees   
As of 2024, we will not be considering repeat awardees (artists who have already received this award).  
 
Work Samples  
Work samples will be required at the nomination and full application level. Please submit up to three quality work samples that demonstrate the mastery of an art form. We do not require work samples from the apprentice. 
 
Program Timeline for 2025  

• Jan 23, 2025: Nomination form opens 
• March 31: Nominations Deadline  
• April 4: Invitation to Full Application  
• May 19: Full Application Deadline  
• September 15: Award notification, Award announcements  
• October-November: Artist paperwork and portraits  
• November-December: award distribution  
• SFA staff site visits in 2026  

Panel Review Criteria  
Master Artists’ applications will be evaluated based on the artist’s ability to demonstrate the following:  

• The artistic excellence of the artists’ work and the cultural community's connection to their art form. (60%) 
• The apprentice’s level of commitment to the art form and demonstration of aesthetic readiness. (20%)   
• The effectiveness of team's (artist and apprentice) proposed plan to work together. (20%)  

 
How to Apply  

The application process consists of two parts:

Nominations 

• Artists must be nominated by an individual familiar with their work, or they may self-nominate. However, if an artist has been previously nominated, they should contact our staff (details below) to ensure eligibility for the full application phase. 
• SFA staff will notify all nominators and artists regarding their invitation status for the full application process by the beginning of April.  
• You can complete a nomination here. 
• If you need assistance writing the nomination, contact Denise Uyehara at duyehara@arizona.edu
   

Full Application  

• Invited artists will proceed to complete the full application. 
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. 
• Ensure timely submission of your application by the deadline. 
• If you need assistance or feedback on your application before you submit it, contact Denise Uyehara at duyehara@arizona.edu, at least one month before the deadline, so she has time to review it.   

 
Award Payment Procedures

• SFA requires all Master Artists awardees to complete the following before it can issue their award payment:  
• Complete a W-9 form and photo release.  
• Have an official portrait taken by our staff photographer for promotional purposes.  
• SFA will then issue the Master Artist and Apprentices their award payments, either by electronic or paper check, as indicated by the awardees. 
• Please note that Master Artist awards are taxable. Master Artists will receive a 1099 tax form in February of the following year.  
• Interviews, filming, and other photo documentation may also be required at the mid-project site visit or at the end of your project. 

Restrictions Regarding Award Funds 

• Southwest Folklife Alliance award funds may be used for any form of expression that advances the transmission of cultural knowledge such as: compensation for the Master Artist and Apprentice(s), travel expenses, materials, regalia, and purchase of equipment.  
• Funds may NOT be used for presenting/touring or artistic project work that does not clearly articulate the apprentices’ educational component.  

Key Definitions  

• Traditional arts: Folk arts, or traditional arts, are forms informally learned and passed through a cultural community, rather than in a formal educational setting. Such forms of art reflect community values, experiences, and worldviews, and can include such things as crafts, music, and storytelling.  
• Cultural communities: Communities that are culturally bonded through region, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, age, or occupation, and share customary and artistic expressions within such communities.  
• Master Artist/ Apprentice Artist: Master Artists are highly skilled practitioners who have learned through traditional means and are recognized as a master by their peers and their community. Apprentices are practitioners with previous experience in the art form and a desire to advance through one-on-one mentorship; they show a serious commitment to sustaining the art form and its informal practices. 

Need help? Questions?  
For more information, questions, or assistance with the online application process contact:   
Denise Uyehara, Program Manager of Artist Services, Southwest Folklife Alliance  
(520) 230-2807 text or voice, or duyehara@arizona.edu