A guitar player with a friendly smile, wearing a festive hat and a traditional serape shawl.
Oregon Culture Keepers Roster
About the Oregon Culture Keepers Roster

Search the online Oregon Culture Keepers Roster—an ever-expanding, juried selection of folk and traditional artists—and connect with cultural experts documented through our regional surveys and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

Rostered artists and culture keepers can provide educational presentations, hands-on demonstrations, or performances to a variety of audiences. We recommend a fee of at least $250 plus travel expenses unless otherwise noted, for such appearances. We do not serve as a booking agent, so please contact the artists directly.

Search the roster by county or keyword to find

  • highly skilled traditional artists for your classroom,
  • storytellers for your library event,
  • cultural experts for your humanities program,
  • performers for your festival stage, or
  • craft artists for demonstrations.

Check back often—we regularly add new folk and traditional artists!

Apply

Interested in applying to be on the roster?

First, review OFN’s definition of a Culture Keeper:

  • A Culture Keeper is a folk or traditional artist, who actively practices, passes on, and preserves the living cultural traditions of the cultural community to which they belong and is recognized by that community. Folk and traditional arts do not include folk-inspired art, which is produced by individuals and groups who are not part of the cultural community that originally produced/created/developed the art form, even if the quality of the art is excellent.

Second, fill out and send in the application form and all required work samples.

Or contact us at 541-346-3820 | ofn@uoregon.edu for assistance.

Found 60 profiles.
Alex Llumiquinga Perez stands in front of a microphone and displays a charango. He is wearing a brown, black, and white patterned poncho.
Alex Llumiquinga Perez
Andean Music and Musical Instrument Making
Alex Llumiquinga Perez (Otter Rock/Salem) is a traditional Andean musician and instrument maker. Perez, whose father gave him his first charango (10-stringed lute), has been passionate about music and instrument making his whole life.
Alseny Yansane stands against a white background with a logo. He wears a yellow headband and multicolored, patterned clothes.
Alseny Yansane
Guinean Drumming and Dance
Alseny Yansane (Eugene) is a master dancer, drummer and culture bearer from Guinea, West Africa. Yansane, an Oregon Folklife Network Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Master Artist in 2014, 2018, and 2020 acquired his skills training with a myriad of talented master artists and performing in many different groups in Conakry, Guinea's vibrant capitol. Yansane trained and performed with the world-renowned National Ballet of Guinea, Les Ballets Africains, for fourteen years and dazzled audiences all over the US, Canada, Bermuda, and Morocco while traveling with their elite touring company.
Andrew "Drew" Viles sits between strands of an unmade basket. He wears a red collared t-shirt.
Andrew "Drew" Viles
Siletz Basket Weaver, Gay-yu (baby basket) Weaver, Storyteller
Andrew "Drew" Viles, PhD (Eugene) is a traditional basket weaver and storyteller who focuses specifically on gay-yu, Siletz cradle baskets; weaving cedar bark hats; and telling the traditional stories of the Siletz people. Viles, who is an instructor of Language, Literature, and Communication at Lane Community College, learned from elders to weave traditional baskets and carve canoe paddles as well as how to gather and process the natural materials to do so.
Anita Menon stands and poses in front of a white wall. She wears a green, gold, and red sari.
Anita Menon
Nattuvangam, Bharatha Natyam Dance
Anita Menon (Portland) is an accomplished Bharatha Natyam dancer, choreographer and Nattuvanar (cymbal player). She founded the Anjali School of Dance to provide training in the ancient Indian Classical Dance form of Bharatha Natyam.
Anuradha Ganesh stands and poses in an expressive dance gesture against a tan wall. She wears a purple and green checkered sari.
Anuradha Ganesh
Classical Indian Dance
Anuradha Ganesh (Beaverton) is a Kuchipudi dancer and teacher. Kuchipudi is one of the eight major Indian classical dances. Ganesh teaches more than 50 students from the ages of five to forty-five in her studio, Nartana School of Kuchipudi.
Arturo dressed in mariachi regalia, holding a trumpet.
Arturo Zavala
Mariachi Musician
Arturo Zavala (Eugene), trumpet player, is a third-generation mariachi musician. Zavala’s father, a professional mariachi himself, taught his children to play. At an early age, Zavala and his brothers played professionally as a mariachi. Now an academic advisor at UO, Zavala continues to carry on his family legacy and celebrate his culture by playing locally with Mariachi Monumental. Zavala is a mariachi educator, very active in mentoring aspiring mariachi musicians in Oregon.
Awilda Medina Vazquez stands in Boriken restaurant in Beaverton, Oregon holding a handmade dita. She wears a dark purple tank top.
Awilda Medina Vazquez
Puerto Rican Foodways
Awilda Medina Vazquez (Beaverton) is a traditional Puerto Rican chef. Born in Utuado, Puerto Rico, she and her husband now own and operates Boriken, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Beaverton. The restaurant serves traditional Puerto Rican dishes and occasionally features live Puerto Rican music.
Basira Sadiqi stands holding a blue embroidered dress. She wearing a gray hijab and a black sweater.
Basira Sadiqi
Afgani Embroidery and Carpet Weaving
Basira Sadiqi (Portland) practices traditional Afghani embroidery and carpet weaving. Sadiqi learned to embroider from her mother; her husband’s female relatives taught her carpet weaving, which she in turn taught her own children during their time in a Pakistani refugee camp.
Beth Gipson standing next to a man with a beard and beaded necklace.
Beth’Ann Gipson
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians Basket Maker and Teacher, Drummer, Singer
Beth’Ann Gipson (Myrtle Creek) is a basketmaker, drummer, and member of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. She has been making baskets since 2012, when she and others had the opportunity to revitalize their sleeping traditions.
Betty Woodward stands outside and holds two water witching rods in Mitchell, Oregon. She wears a green quarter zip jacket with leaves on it.
Betty Woodward
Water Witching
Betty Woodward (Mitchell) is a water witcher who helps her neighbors decide where to drill in the dry, rocky land of Wheeler County. Woodward tried witching after watching another Mitchell resident, Gene Jordan, use a forked willow branch as his witching rod. When she’s not quilting and painting, Woodward witches for friends or acquaintances a few times year.
Brian O'hAirt sitting outside on a rock holding an accordion. The picture is in black and white.
Brian Ó hAirt
Traditional singing in Irish Gaelic
Brian Ó hAirt (Portland) is a master musician, singer, and dancer from the Irish tradition. He is deeply involved in the preservation of Irish cultural practices and especially the Irish Gaelic language. He attended university and was mentored by tradition bearers in Ireland before moving to Oregon to work as a community educator and organizer around cultural practice and language. Since 2006 he has facilitated workshops throughout North America at various cultural gatherings, festivals, summer schools, and weekend Irish Gaelic language intensives.
Cecil Coons sits on a stump outside in Burns, Oregon and demonstrates how to chip an arrowhead (obsidian). He wears a black long sleeved shirt, a white cowboy hat, and a talon pendant.
Cecil and Emory Coons
Arrowhead Chippers
Cecil and Emory Coons (Burns) are father and son arrowhead chippers of obsidian they collect from the hills around their home. They use and teach traditional techniques for chipping a variety of arrowhead styles. The family home, totally obscured behind piles of gathered obsidian to be sold outright to collectors or to be used in reproduction arrowheads and spears, shows the Coons’ unbridled passion for the pursuit. Cecil refers to his son as “probably the finest spear-point maker in the world.”
Celeste Whitewolf stands outside and poses in front of tall bushes. She wears a purple sweater over a purple shirt.
Celeste Whitewolf
Native American Basket Weaving and Fiber Arts
Celeste Whitewolf (Tigard) is a fiber artist and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla. She credits her Karuk grandmother for her talent for basket weaving. Using natural materials that she collects, Whitewolf makes baskets for traditional uses, like picking huckleberries, as well as for handbags.
Dagoberto Morales Duran sitting on a couch wearing a grey t-shirt.
Dagoberto Morales Duran
Purépecha Wheat Straw Weaving, Dry-Stone Wall Building
Dagoberto Morales Duran (Medford) is a traditional P'urhépecha tule and wheat straw weaver and dry-stone wall builder from San Jeronimo Purenchecuaro, in central Michoacán, Mexico. He is descended from four generations of craftsmen and learned tule and straw weaving at age five. He also learned from his father to build dry stone walls.
Dean Adams kneels outside with a juniper bark basket resting on his knee, and two more of the same baskets on his right and left. He wears a blue shirt and blue jeans.
Dean Adams
Native American Silversmithing/Basketry
Dean Adams (Burns) is a Native American (Burns Paiute; Jemez Pueblo) silversmith and basket maker. Adams learned to polish stones and make ring shanks from his father. Along with silver work, Adams is known for his juniper bark “knee” baskets, traditionally used for storage.
Dorotea Lopez stands and holds a red, green, and white embroidered blouse. She wears a cream sweater and a patterned scarf.
Dorotea Lopez
Mixteco Language, Foodways, and Textiles
Dorotea Lopez (Cornelius) is a Mixteca culture keeper. Born in San Miguel el Grande, Oaxaca, Mexico, Lopez celebrates her heritage with a group of more than 50 local Oaxacan women who gather regularly to cook their traditional foods, speak their indigenous Mixtec language, and make traditional embroidered textiles.
Ed Edmo sits in front of green metal shelves. He wears a dark blue long sleeve shirt, a patterned vest, two shell necklaces, a medicine bag, and glasses.
Ed Edmo
Native American Storytelling
Ed Edmo (Portland) is a storyteller from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. As a boy growing up in Celilo Falls, an ancient Native American site along the Columbia River, he heard stories from his parents and grandparents. Edmo brings his rich repertoire alive for audiences near and far.
Eleeziaa Howard stands in front of tall bushes while holding a small pair of handcrafted moccasins. She wears a gray shirt.
Eleeziaa Howard
Moccasin Crafting
Eleeziaa Howard (Milwaukie, OR) makes moccasins that reflect the cultural heritage of her ancestral community, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Her moccasins are a “round top” style; she makes each one from a single piece of leather and then beads them in red, black, and turquoise, colors that she says are typical of northwest tribes. Howard learned this artform from her cousin, and has begun to share her skills with others, both online as well as in person and at Siletz culture camps.
Emma Jean Smith stands indoors holding up a light pink knitted cardigan. She wears a dark blue sweater.
Emma Jean Smith
Knitting, Sewing, Quilting, Storytelling, Gardening, Canning
Emma Jean Smith (Grass Valley) is a master of many traditional crafts and activities including quilting, sewing, knitting, canning, and gardening. Smith acquired her skills from her mother. Smith, a 4H teacher for 52 years, passed those same skills along to several more generations of students.
Esther charismatically tells a story, gesturing upwards with both of her hands. She wears a traditional leather outfit made with shells and beads as well as a beaded cap.
Esther Stutzman
Traditional Kalapuya/Coos Storytelling
Esther Stutzman (Yoncalla) is a traditional storyteller and educator. Stutzman, who is Komemma Kalapuya (from the Willamette Valley) on her mother's side and Hanis Coos from the Oregon coast on her father's side, is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Stutzman works with schools, museums, libraries, and universities to share her culture and history. She is also a founding member of the six-woman Old West Cowgirl band, Slow Ponies.

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