Community and Traditional Arts

Traditional Arts Masters & Apprentices Selected

	Doug Protsik

Four traditional arts masters: Doug Protsik, Tom Côté, Cindy Larock and Stan Neptune, will be able to pass their skills to apprentices as part of the Maine Arts Commission’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program.

Doug Protsik of Woolwich, ME, a fiddler who has traveled with the string band, Old Grey Goose, to Central Asia, Poland and Cuba as a cultural ambassador, has teamed up with ten-year old Milo Stanley. Stanley, his young apprentice, has been wowing audiences all over Maine with his fiddling and earlier this year appeared with Protsik at the Saco River Grange Hall to standing ovations and calls for an encore. Stanley also performs with the Pineland fiddlers, his mother, Kristin Salvatore writes, “Watching them work together is not so much like watching a ten-year-old and his teacher, rather they are two musicians who enjoy making music together.” In addition to fiddling, Protsik composes and records scores for silent movies and directs the annual Maine Fiddle Camp.

	Tom Côté

Tom Côté, of Limestone, ME, learned his woodcarving skills from his mother and grandfather. When he was 27 years old, he apprenticed to a cousin in Quebec, where he expanded much of his expertise. Among his works is a statue of Saint Louis that was carved for the Catholic Church in Limestone. Côté teaches carving in the Limestone High School and will team up with two apprentices, Jessica Stackhouse and Traci Weathershed, both of Limestone. Both Stackhouse and Weathershed remember their grandparents carving and whittling, and both hope to teach others once they have mastered the art themselves. Côté maintains a small shop in Limestone where he carves reliefs and small figures. How does one know where to find Côté? Pedestrians passing by will see a smiling face beaming at them from the trunk of a tree in Côté’s yard.


Cindy Larock of Lewsiston, ME, a stepdancer, founded the youth folk dance ensemble Les Pieds Rigolants (The Giggling Feet), which she coaches in performances throughout Maine. Cindy is a veteran of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program and has studied as an apprentice with Quebecois master Benoit Bourque, a member of the acclaimed Canadian music ensemble, Le Vent du Nord. After studying with Bourque, Larock became a master in her own right, taking on apprentices. Currently she is teamed up with apprentice Donna Casavant who grew up hearing stories of Saturday night family dances and remembers her grandfather dancing in his chair to the music he played on his harmonica.


Stan Neptune, of Passadumkeag, ME, is a member of the Penobscot Nation, and a traditional carver of ceremonial root clubs. Neptune was born on Indian Island, ME, where he has lived for 50 years. Much of his knowledge of traditional ways was handed down from Senabeh, a Penobscot elder considered to be the last medicine man of the Penobscot tribe. Neptune has teamed up with apprentice Dennis Tomah.

	Outdoor carving by Tom Côté.

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