The Galicia Project

THE PROJECT: Galicia is little-known globally although its culture is rich and rewarding. Through the lens of Galician literature, music, and history, we can see a record of a long and complex culture and how it affects the Galician people. The potent beauty of the land and seas, and the interaction of the native people with their home through the ages is woven through the music, the poetry, and the prose, and literally carved into the bedrock. This concept of a very old, rich, and established culture and the way that the past is visible alongside the present is potent and informative, and it is also novel to the United States and Canada, whose dominant cultures are extremely young in comparison.

As attempts are made to grow tourism in Galicia, it would be beneficial to mindfully attract the types of people who can appreciate, foster, and raise awareness of Galician culture and its inspirational qualities, and those people are the artists who are creating culture abroad and have the eyes and ears of many people who also care about culture. By bringing North American artists to Galicia and immersing them in the culture in an organic and inspiring way, we will become the catalyst for art inspired here to make its way into other cultures in a positive and seamless way.

Our goal is to create an environment conducive to the creation of music, literature and visual art inspired by Galicia and its culture, and to facilitate learning and growth through cross-cultural exposure and collaboration, including a program of taking Galician artists to perform in high-end venues in North America, and subsequently establish Galicia as a destination for cultural inspiration.

THE PLACE: The project’s home base will be in a traditional Galician home, reflective of the culture and history of Galicia, simple but comfortable. The house will be situated in a lovely, quiet, pastoral setting, with walking trails and amenities nearby.

This property will be prepared with three independent apartments suitable for one or two people, with bedroom, salon, small kitchen, and bathroom. Several writing spaces will be available at all times, including writing sheds in strategic places that showcase the physical beauty of Galicia. The independent nature of the housing will allow the project to continue regardless of pandemic levels and offer privacy and solitude to those who need it in order to create.

We will create an environment conducive to the creation of music and other art, including outdoor meeting spaces where Galician musicians will be invited to dine and play music with the visiting artists, exposing participants in a very organic and collaborative way to traditional Galician music and also to contemporary Galician music that exhibits an evolution of, and homage to, traditional music (Caldo, Xosé Liz, Margarida Mariño, etc.)

Common space will include a simple but professional grade recording studio which will be available to musicians at any time to facilitate creation of music and make collaboration with Galician artists seamless. We are working with Tom Dube, professor of sound engineering at Berklee College of Music, Boston, and tour manager for artists such as Jackson Browne, Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, Amy Mann, and many others. Tom has committed to travel to Galicia to help with designing and equipping the studio.  

CULTURAL EXPOSURE: Visiting artists can be exposed to Galician culture in various ways, including bringing Galician chefs to prepare one or more communal meals every week; visits to petroglyphs, castros, dolmens, and other ancient sites; visits with historians, writers, archeologists, etc, either on the project property or off site; interaction with neighbors and interested community members; trips to places of interest like The Coast of Death, Santiago, and elsewhere; attendance at fiestas and participation in rituals (San Juan, for example); walks and hikes in typically beautiful forests, fields, aldeas, and along the waterways of Galicia.

AUTHORS: The apartments would be available throughout most of the year to authors for 1-month periods for the purpose of working on existing projects or developing works in peace and isolation. Galician cultural experiences would be available to them at the level to which they want to participate. We are working with top literary agent Amy Collins of Talcott Notch Literary Agency in New York City, who has made a commitment to supply writers for this project, of which she is an avid enthusiast. Author visits would largely fund the operation of this project.

THE “HEART OF ROSALIA” EXPERIENCE: One month of the year the house would host three artists from different genres: one writer, one singer/songwriter, one visual artist. These artists would be immersed in Galician culture and perhaps be given a loose theme to direct their work. They would work independently or together as they wish and be given great latitude and freedom to create in the way that works best for them. In the final week of the residency, their projects would be displayed to the public through a concert/show that would include music, an art show, and readings.

VISUAL ARTISTS: We have many contacts in the visual arts, including photographers, sculptors, painters, and filmmakers and actors. We are adaptable to future programs depending on the popularity or success of prior sessions.

COLLABORATION WITHIN GALICIA: Visiting musicians could conduct master classes, appear at festivals or concerts at regional performance halls; and exceptional Galician music students could attend music parties at the house. We are working with Manuel Villar of the El Centro Superior de Música de Galicia (CSM Galicia) who has committed to collaborations of this type. Likewise, author talks could be held at the house or elsewhere, photographers and other visual artists could visit appropriate Galician institutions.

We are discussing collaborative ideas with our contacts at Berklee College of Music (Sarah is an alumna), both in Boston and Valencia.

TOURING: We intend to take Galician musicians to perform in the United States and elsewhere in North America. Our initial touring project will be to establish a Galicia Stage at the 2024 Rochester International Jazz Festival. This premier 9-day festival would require 9 individual performing artists/groups, each performing two 45-minute shows. We are collaborating with trusted world music booking agents in the United States who have committed to working with select Galician artists who would like to maximize their time in the United States by booking other performances. Our partner in Rochester is Galician composer Octavio Vazquez, Director of the Music Composition Undergraduate Program at Nazareth University.

SARAH LONG HENDERSHOT is a lifelong musician who has appeared with artists such as Randy Travis, Bill Monroe, Trisha Yearwood, George Jones and others. She has made appearances on The Nashville Network, Good Morning America, and Galician National TV. She is also a writer and a storyteller on the RISK! podcast, where her true stories have had millions of listens. She is “Jane” of the Jane in Spain YouTube channel.

JONES HENDERSHOT is an internationally known fine arts photographer who has been featured in myriad books and fine art photography journals. When he's not pointing a camera, he's behind a sound board, recording or mixing sound, live or in the studio. Jones is the other half of the Jane in Spain YouTube channel.

The Rapa das Bestas is an annual cultural festival of Galicia, Spain that involves the gathering of the wild horse population in order to shave their manes, conduct a health check, treat any ailments or injuries, and deworm them. The horses are collected from the wild in the days before the Rapa and are concentrated in nearby pastures from where they are taken in groups to the curro, or corral. There the foals of the herd are removed to a separate corral so that they can be microchipped and branded, while they are kept away from the crush of activity in the main corral to ensure their safety. A team made up of three people hold each adult horse while it is treated. After the Rapa they are returned to their territory to live freely.

Since 2018, a small number of the horses have been fitted with locator collars equipped with GPS for the purpose of studying their habits and managing the herds in times of food scarcity, and also to determine the importance of wild horses in the control of forest fires, among other things. The horses that move freely in the area are of the Galician mestizo breed and the purebred Galician horse.

In order to evolve with current understandings of animal welfare, the traditional branding of young horses has been modified since 2022. Liquid nitrogen is now being used in place of fire before applying the brands to the skin, which makes the marking process much less painful for the animal. The branding of the wild horse population ensures that no wild horses can end up in the possession of any individual, and that their rights as wild animals will be respected.

The best known and largest Rapa das Bestas is that of Sabucedo, in the Town Hall of La Estrada, which lasts four days: it begins on the first Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the month of July.

Currently there are more than 600 wild horses in the region, divided into 14 herds, which live free in an area of ​​more than 200 km² of forest. In Sabucedo no ropes, sticks or devices are used to control the animal. The aloitadores, who are in charge of holding the beast while the Rapa proceeds, use only their dexterity and their body to carry out their work. Another specificity of the Rapa das Bestas de Sabucedo is that the activity of gathering and driving the beasts to the place of Sabucedo is part of the celebration itself and hundreds of people from Galicia and outside the community participate in it. Another tradition within the great tradition that is the Rapa das Bestas de Sabucedo is that on Saturday morning, very early before going up the mountain, an emotional mass is celebrated where San Lorenzo (patron saint of Sabucedo) is asked to oversee that no accident or misfortune occurs during the event.

The Rapa das Bestas is carried out by the aloitadores. The act of the Rapa is at the same time, according to the scholar Manuel Cabada , a symbolic initiation of the passage of the child to youth, when grasping for the first time a colt guided and directed by the elders.

The fiesta is mentioned in writings of the area from the beginning of the 18^th century, referring to an annual festive celebration of the descent of the beasts from the mountain, their subsequent shaving and the marking of the young foals. Even so, it is believed, and some scholars such as Manuel Cabada collected it in their books, that the tradition is much older and could even be pre-Roman since various petroglyphs exist in the area where men on horses are represented. The festival was declared of National Tourist Interest in 1963, and in 2007 it was declared of International Tourist Interest, one of only four fiestas with this designation existing in Galicia.

EL PROYECTO: Galicia es poco conocida a nivel mundial aunque su cultura es rica y gratificante. A través de la lente de la literatura, la música y la historia de Galicia, podemos ver un registro de una cultura larga y compleja y cómo afecta a los gallegos. La potente belleza de la tierra y los mares, y la interacción de los nativos con su hogar a lo largo de los siglos, se entretejen a través de la música, la poesía y la prosa, y literalmente se tallan en la roca. Este concepto de una cultura muy antigua, rica y establecida, y la forma en que el pasado es visible junto con el presente, son hechos potentes e informativos, y también son novedosos para los Estados Unidos y Canadá, cuyas culturas dominantes son extremadamente jóvenes en comparación.

A medida que se intenta hacer crecer el turismo en Galicia, sería beneficioso atraer conscientemente a los tipos de personas que pueden apreciar, fomentar y dar a conocer la cultura gallega y sus cualidades inspiradoras, y esas personas son los artistas que están creando cultura en el extranjero, que a su vez tienen la atención, los ojos y los oídos de muchas personas que también se preocupan por la cultura. Al traer artistas norteamericanos a Galicia y sumergirlos en la cultura de una manera orgánica e inspiradora, nos convertiremos en el catalizador para que el arte inspirado aquí se abra paso en otras culturas de una manera positiva y fluida.

Nuestro objetivo es crear un entorno propicio para la creación de música, literatura y artes visuales inspiradas en Galicia y su cultura, y facilitar el aprendizaje y el crecimiento a través de la exposición y colaboración intercultural, incluyendo un programa para llevar a artistas gallegos a actuar en los principales escenarios de América del Norte, y posteriormente consolidar a Galicia como destino de inspiración cultural.

EL LUGAR: La base de operaciones del proyecto será una casa tradicional gallega, que refleje la cultura y la historia de Galicia, simple pero cómoda. La casa estará situada en un entorno hermoso, tranquilo y pastoral, con senderos para caminar y servicios cercanos.

Esta propiedad dispondrá de tres apartamentos independientes aptos para una o dos personas, con dormitorio, salón, pequeña cocina y baño. Varios espacios de escritura estarán disponibles en todo momento, incluyendo pequeñas cabañas para escritores en lugares estratégicos que muestren la belleza física de Galicia. El carácter independiente de la vivienda permitirá que el proyecto continúe incluso en caso de pandemia y ofrezca privacidad y soledad a quienes la necesitan para crear.

Crearemos un entorno propicio para la creación de música y otras artes, incluidos espacios de reunión al aire libre donde se invitará a músicos gallegos a cenar y tocar música con los artistas visitantes, exponiendo así a los participantes, de una manera muy orgánica y colaborativa, a la música tradicional gallega y también a música gallega contemporánea que muestra una evolución y un homenaje a la música tradicional (Caldo, Xosé Liz, Margarida Mariño, etc.)

El espacio común incluirá un estudio de grabación simple pero de nivel profesional que estará disponible para los músicos en cualquier momento para facilitar la creación de música y hacer que la colaboración con los artistas gallegos sea fluida. Estamos trabajando con Tom Dube, profesor de ingeniería de sonido en Berklee College of Music, Boston, y director de giras de artistas como Jackson Browne, Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, Amy Mann y muchos otros. Tom se ha comprometido a viajar a Galicia para ayudar a diseñar y equipar el estudio.

EXPOSICIÓN CULTURAL: Los artistas visitantes estarán expuestos a la cultura gallega de varias maneras, incluyendo la contratación de chefs gallegos para preparar una o más comidas comunitarias cada semana; visitas a petroglifos, castros, dólmenes y otros sitios antiguos; reuniones con historiadores, escritores, arqueólogos, etc., ya sea en la propiedad del proyecto o en otro sitio; interacción con vecinos y miembros de la comunidad interesados; viajes a lugares de interés como A Costa da Morte, Santiago y otros; asistencia a fiestas y participación en rituales (noche de San Juan, por ejemplo); paseos y caminatas en bosques, campos, aldeas y por las vías fluviales de Galicia, típicamente hermosas.

AUTORES: Los apartamentos estarían disponibles durante la mayor parte del año para los autores por períodos de 1 mes con el fin de trabajar en proyectos existentes o desarrollar nuevas obras en paz y aislamiento. Las experiencias culturales gallegas estarían a su disposición en el nivel al que quieran participar. Estamos trabajando con la importante agente literaria Amy Collins de la Talcott Notch Literary Agency en la ciudad de Nueva York, quien se ha comprometido a proporcionar escritores para este proyecto, del cual es una ávida entusiasta. Las visitas de los autores financiarían en gran medida la operación de este proyecto.

LA EXPERIENCIA “CORAZÓN DE ROSALIA”: Un mes del año la casa albergaría a tres artistas de diferentes géneros: un escritor, un cantautor, un artista visual. Estos artistas estarían inmersos en la cultura gallega y quizás se les daría un tema suelto para orientar su obra. Trabajarían de forma independiente o en conjunto como lo desearan y se les daría gran latitud y libertad para crear de la manera que mejor funcione para ellos. En la semana final de la residencia, sus proyectos se mostrarían al público a través de un concierto/espectáculo que incluiría música, una muestra de arte y lecturas públicas.

ARTISTAS VISUALES: Tenemos muchos contactos en las artes visuales, incluidos fotógrafos, escultores, pintores, cineastas y actores. Somos adaptables a futuros programas dependiendo de la popularidad o el éxito de las sesiones anteriores.

COLABORACIÓN DENTRO DE GALICIA: Los músicos visitantes podrán impartir clases magistrales, presentarse en festivales o conciertos en salas de espectáculos regionales; y estudiantes excepcionales de música gallega podían asistir a fiestas musicales en la casa. Estamos trabajando con Manuel Villar del El Centro Superior de Música de Galicia (CSM Galicia) que ha apostado por colaboraciones de este tipo. Asimismo, se podrán realizar charlas de autor en la casa o en otro lugar, fotógrafos y otros artistas visuales podrán visitar las instituciones gallegas apropiadas.

Estamos discutiendo ideas colaborativas con nuestros contactos en Berklee College of Music (Sarah es exalumna), tanto en Boston como en Valencia.

GIRAS: Tenemos la intención de llevar a los músicos gallegos a actuar en los Estados Unidos y en otros lugares de América del Norte. Nuestro proyecto inicial de gira será establecer un Galician Stage en el Festival Internacional de Jazz de Rochester 2024. Este importante festival de 9 días requeriría 9 artistas/grupos individuales gallegos, cada uno realizando dos espectáculos de 45 minutos. Estamos colaborando con agencias musicales internacionales con reputación en los Estados Unidos, que se han comprometido a trabajar con artistas gallegos selectos que deseen maximizar su tiempo en los Estados Unidos programando otras actuaciones.

Actualmente estamos en negociaciones con el festival de jazz para traer a los siguientes artistas a la edición 2024:

Abe Rábade Quartet
Davide Salvado
Margarida Mariño
Xosé Liz Quartet
Zeltia Irevire
Caldo
Ailá
Valentin Caamaño Quartet
Obal
BÖJ
Tuna de Derecho

Nuestro socio en Rochester es el compositor gallego de renombre internacional, el Dr. Octavio Vázquez, director del Programa de Licenciatura en Composición Musical del Nazareth College.

SARAH LONG HENDERSHOT ha desarrollado desde su juventud una dilatada carrera musical, colaborando con artistas como Randy Travis, Bill Monroe, Trisha Yearwood, George Jones y muchos otros. Ha aparecido en medios como The Nashville Network, Good Morning America y Televisión de Galicia. También es escritora y narradora del podcast “RISK!”, donde sus relatos de hechos reales han recibido millones de escuchas. Ella es “Jane” del canal de YouTube “Jane in Spain”.

JONES HENDERSHOT es un fotógrafo de renombre internacional que ha aparecido en innumerables libros y revistas de fotografía y bellas artes. Cuando no está detrás de una cámara, está detrás de una mesa de sonido, grabando o mezclando música, en directo o en estudio. Jones es el otro productor, junto con Jane, del canal de YouTube “Jane in Spain”.

619 70 75 52
sjlhendershot@gmail.com