Many are taken for granted and are not being passed on within communities. The masters grow older, and unless the young take interest, traditional art forms can be lost. The Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship Program is an attempt to remedy this problem. The Program has formalized the folk process of apprenticeship to encourage the transmission of the more specialized art forms to someone in the culture. The apprentices' reward is the acquisition of in-depth knowledge about the tradition.
Preference is given to apprentices coming from the same culture as the master.
This is not a program to teach traditions cross-culturally. Nor is it a program for traditions that are in no danger of dying out or have become part of popular culture, such as gumbomaking, crocheting, knitting, or netmaking. This virtual book profiles eleven folk artists who have participated in the Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Some of these artists maintain highly endangered traditions such as Acadian brown cotton weaving or speaking the Choctaw language. Gladys Clark is the only-known traditional Acadian weaver in the state.