As a Service Learning project led by Director Sterling Brignac, participants in Delgado’s Building Crafts Apprentice Training program have created an authentic Medieval cart that will be donated for annual use in the Krewe of St. Joan of Arc Parade and related events.
The apprentice training program, created through a partnership of Delgado, LTC and The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment (U.K.) with the Preservation Resource Center and Louisiana Carpenters Union, is the nation’s first and only of its kind. Its aim is to create master craftsmen in the areas of carpentry/millwork, masonry, plastering, metalwork and stained glass who can apply their traditional skills to restoration and sustainable new building in New Orleans.
The carpentry/millwork apprentices, Vitto Ingerto, Michelle Martin, John Robert Portman, Ben Sanady, Phung Tran, J.A. Jaquet and Malcom Harding, have researched, designed and hand-built an historically accurate Medieval cart under the direction of Carpenter Journeyman Carl Treitler Jr. and master British artisans Steve Sinney and Kieran Wint.
The cart is crafted of reclaimed cypress and oak, rough hewn as it would have been in St. Joan’s time, and it will make its first appearance at the Joan of Arts Fete on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010.
