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 274 profiles.
Prajwal R. Vajracharya sits indoors in front of a red couch with decorative pillows. He wears a gray long sleeved shirt.
Prajwal R. Vajracharya
Buddhist Dance
Prajwal R. Vajracharya (Portland) carries on the tradition of a thousand-year old Buddhist worship dance with origins in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. For many years, the dance was passed down in secret from generation to generation; only recently has Vajracharya’s father allowed it to be performed in public and by people from outside of his family.
An image of Prekshita dancing.
Prekshita Jain
Bharatha Natyam Classical Indian Dance
Prekshita Jain was born in the culturally rich city, Bangalore in Karnataka state in South India. Being from a traditional South Indian family, she was exposed to a lot of classical music and dance forms early on in her childhood. Jain has been learning and performing classical and folk dances for past twenty years with over 100 performances both in India and in the US.
Rafael Castrejon with Mariachi Centella
mariachi musician and maestro
Rafael Castrejon (Talent) is a mariachi musician and the maestro of Mariachi Centella. The band, which Castrejon founded in 2011, plays for a variety of events (celebrations, holidays, quinceañeras, birthdays, funerals, weddings) all over northern California, southern and western Oregon, and up to Seattle, WA. He himself sings as well as plays 3 instruments and has also written/recorded his own songs on CDs with Mariachi Centella.
Ramona Hulick stands on a stage and talks into a microphone during an auction. She wears a black button-up shirt with gold embroidery, a large gold belt buckle, and light blue jeans.
Ramona Hulick
Auctioneering
Ramona Hulick (Redmond) is a rapid-fire auctioneer who grew up on a ranch west of Fresno, California making regular trips to the cattle auction with her dad. After moving to Central Oregon, she developed her skills in this male-dominated field, and is now lead auctioneer at the largest and oldest Western auction in the world, selling an item a minute for six to seven hours at a stretch.
Randi Johnson smiles at the camera wearing a cowgirl hat
Randi Johnson
Cowboy Poetry
Randi Johnson (Burns) is a cowboy poet. Randi grew up on cattle ranches in Nevada, California, and Oregon. She started participating in rodeos at the age of six, and has walked the line between the buckaroo and rodeo worlds ever since. An avid reader since childhood, her interests developed into a love of storytelling through cowboy poetry. Now a first grade teacher, she is able to pass on her love of reading and the western lifestyle on to the next generation.
Richard Stapleman sits in his workshop. He wears a blue and white striped button-down shirt and a white cowboy hat.
Richard Stapleman
Bootmaking
Richard Stapleman (Pendleton) is a boot maker who makes custom-fitted boots. Stapleman’s was a bull rider for over 20 years and travelled on the rodeo circuit.
Rick DeFerrari stands outside and leans against a table. He wears a dark gray vest over a dark gray long sleeved shirt.
Rick DeFerrari
Coopering
DeFarrari (McMinnville) is a cooper, a traditional barrel maker, a centuries-old craft necessary to aging wine. First schooled in the renowned Burgundy region of France, DeFerrari has spent decades attaining a deep knowledge of barrel toasting. The results of his craft are the oak flavors wines acquire while aged in his vessels, and a product that keeps his services in demand.
Rick Pass stands in front of a lake holding a wooden duck decoy.
Rick Pass
Decoy Carver
Rick Pass (Astoria, OR) is a duck decoy carver whose work draws on his local roots. He grew up hunting with decoys on the Columbia River and seeing Charles Bergman’s masterful decoys displayed in homes around town. Pass’s decoys include “contemporary antiques,” birds that emulate works by Bergman and other regional decoy carvers.
Robert (Bob) Stevens sits in an armchair holding a mandolin. He wears a brown plaid shirt and blue overalls.
Robert (Bob) Stevens
Fiddling and Old Time Music
Bob Stevens (Hardman) is an old time musician who lives on a Century Farm, which his grandfather and great-grandfather homesteaded in 1904. He plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and stand-up bass.
Robin Alexander sits indoors with a television and a wooden wall in the background.
Robin Alexander
River Guide, Fly Fisher, McKenzie Storyteller
Robin Alexander (Leaburg) is a river guide, fly fisher, and storyteller. A member of the McKenzie River Guides Association, he has deep and extensive knowledge of the history and lore of the McKenzie River.
Diane McKoen sitting in the Tater Patch quilt store in Merrill, Oregon. She wears a purple long sleeved shirt.
Robin King and Diane McKoen
Tater Patch Quilts
Robin King and Diane McKoen (Merrill) are the co-owners of The Tater Patch quilt store, located in a downtown historic building. The pair sells fabrics and quilting supplies, hosts and teaches classes and workshops, and creates community centered quilts for display in the shop.
Roger and Joe Pechanec stand near a wooden wall show off a metal riding gear.
Roger and Joe Pechanec
Riding Gear Making
Roger and Joe Pechanec (Mitchell) are a father and son team who make riding gear for local cowboys. Roger specializes in leatherwork, producing headstalls, martin gales, and occasional leggings and saddles. Complementing Roger’s work, Joe braids and twists rawhide in the style he learned from local master rawhider, Roy Critchlow.
Roger Fairfield stands outdoors and holds a bamboo fly fishing rod with tall trees in the background. He wears a black jacket and jeans.
Roger Fairfield
Bamboo Fly Rod Making
Roger Fairfield (Sisters) crafts bamboo fly fishing rods in his home workshop for use on local rivers and lakes. He begins with bamboo culms, cuts and shaves them into precision-tapered strips, and assembles these strips to form rods that have the characteristic “action” of antique fly rods. For Roger, who grew up vacationing at the headwaters of the Metolius River, fishing with bamboo rods is a family and regional tradition.
Ron Lauzon stands inside a garage next to a river raft boat. He wears a green jacket and a green baseball cap.
Ron Lauzon
Fly Fishing Instructor & River Boat Guide
Ron Lauzon (Sandy) is a fly fisherman and river guide, among the few who fish the Clackamas River year-round.
Ron Phillips sits playing an acoustic guitar and singing into a microphone. He is wearing a tan hat and a blue and white striped button down shirt with suspenders.
Ron Phillips
String Band Music
Ron Phillips (John Day) works tirelessly to maintain the string band music tradition that he grew up with in the town of John Day. Twice a week, he hosts an open-participation session he calls Grant County Jammers. Often, Ron leads tunes he learned from his grandmother or uncles, with whom he played at grange dances in his youth.
Ron Wilson sits at a table near a workbench with a piece of leather. He wears a beige cowboy hat and a grey plaid vest over a blue shirt.
Ron Wilson
Leather-working
Ron Wilson (Arlington) is a leatherworker who first learned from fellow roster artist Alene Rucker in 4H. Today Wilson works in his leather shop in the back of Ace Hardware in Arlington. Wilson keeps busy making chaps, chinks (half length chaps), belts, purses, rodeo queen outfits, tack, and many other types of leather goods.
Rosa Villagrana stands in front of a brown wall with hanging windchimes. She wears a purple t-shirt.
Rosa Villagrana
Quilting and Foodways
Rosa Villagrana (Silver Lake) is a traditional Mexican cook and a quilter. She prepares traditional Mexican dishes that she sells at stores around Lake County. After learning to quilt from local quilters in the 1980s, Villagrana began hand and machine quilting.
Rosie Tom stands outside on a grassy field with trees and bushes in the background. She wears a black fleece jacket.
Rosie Tom
Beadwork, Basketry
Rosie Tom (Warm Springs) is a master bead worker whose experience dates back to the 1960s. Tom also makes moccasins, gloves, baskets, and quilts. She gathers and cooks native foods such as salmon, roots, and berries. Tom is actively involved in the NW Native American Basket Weavers Association and the Great Basin Native Basket Weavers Association.
Ross Westgate stands in front of a wooden wall with tools and a framed picture. He wears a denim button down shirt.
Ross Westgate
Gunsmithing
Ross Westgate (Chiloquin) is a gunsmith specializing in handmade muzzleloaders. To date, he has made 80 muzzleloaders. Each gun is made from a single piece of wood and is very accurate. Westgate also makes handmade arrows, quivers, and powder horns.
Samuel Becerra holding an Aztec Flute like instrument
Samuel Becerra
Traditional Aztec Flute Maker
Samuel Becerra specializes in building Aztec flutes, clay flutes, using the same techniques that the Aztec peoples of ancient Mexico used over 800 years ago. These flutes are hand-crafted one at a time for traditional Aztec ceremonies.

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