New tour available now!

Cascade Loop Heritage Tour – South
Northwest Heritage Resources has just released our 8th heritage tour guide for Washington state, featuring the cultural heritage that you would encounter as you travel along U.S. Route 2, the southern half of the Cascade Loop Scenic Highway.

The guide is a 2 CD audio tour (with a guidebook) which includes the cultural heritage, stories, folk poetry and traditional music of the people who live in this part of Washington state.

New Folk Arts Exhibit and Festival at the Washington State History Museum

WITH OUR HANDS: World Folk Arts Traditions of Washington State
Exhibit on display from March – July 2010.
Washington State History Museum
1911 Pacific Ave. Tacoma, WA 98402

Korean Traditional Artist-in-Residence

From September – December 2009 Northwest Heritage Resources hosted Korean traditional musician Bora Ju for a four month artist residency in western Washington. Bora Ju’s residency was supported by The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea.

Bora Ju is an exceptionally talented performer of the gayageum, a Korean traditional plucked zither. During her residency she taught gayageum to students of the Ethnomusicology Department at the University of Washington and gave a series of concerts and workshops in Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia.

Look for a NEW Korean artist residency to be hosted by Northwest Heritage Resources in the fall of 2010!

NEW! Native American Stories of Washington

Native American Stories of Washington is a project designed to document and preserve stories and legends as told by some of Washington state’s important Native American tradition bearers. Learn more about this project...

Traditional Arts Programs in Washington State Parks

Starting in 2005, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, in collaboration with the Washington State Arts Commission established a Folk & Traditional Arts in the Parks Program at Washington State Parks that organized a wide range of traditional arts concerts, artist demonstrations, festivals and other events for state parks located throughout Washington state.  The programs have included Native American Cultural Days, Latino Folk Arts Festivals, gospel, bluegrass, and Celtic music concerts, Arab-American Cultural Days, storytelling events and much more. Many of the programs are FREE to the public.

For more information about these wonderful programs, see:  www.parks.wa.gov/events Or contact: Jens Lund, Folk & Traditional Arts Program Coordinator, Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission;
jens.lund@parks.wa.gov; 360-902-8526.

Finnish folk artist honored

We are proud to announce that Finnish traditional artist, Wilho Saari was honored in 2006 with a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.
More...