Founded in 1998, the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association is a not for profit organization formed to preserve the craftsmanship of fine western gear making. It is the goal of the TCAA to establish a continuous link between the traditional gear making skills of the past and future generations of gear makers.

Through the disciplines of bit and spur making, saddle making, silversmithing, and rawhide braiding, it is the hope of the TCAA that the best made gear will always be seen as it was intended to be used, on the ranch horse and by the cowboy not just behind glass.

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Academy of Western Artists Awards!

Three of our TCAA members recently won Academy of Western Artists awards. They are: Wilson Capron who won both the bit and spurmaker of the year (2008) and also engraver of the year. Mehl Lawson who won Braider of the year and Pedro Pedrini who won saddlemaker of the year. Congratulations to all! - BH

Spring Meeting

Our spring meeting this year was in in Santa Fe, NM on April 22 with our meetings and events running until April the 25th. This is our semi-annual meeting with all the members and we had a great time getting together to discuss upcoming issues and activities. See you all in the Fall!

Winter 2009 Newsletter

We've just published our latest newsletter and you can find it (and all our past newsletters) by visiting the News & Events page.

TCAA Reaches Out To The World In 2008!

What a fantastic year it's been for the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association. With the phenomenal success of the 2008 tenth anniversary show and sale at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the addition of four new members, and two of those new members coming from Argentina, it couldn't have of been better! But hold on to your ponies there's more! According to official Google search engine statistics, over twenty-thousand people from nearly one-hundred different countries around the world have visited the TCAA website in 2008! How wonderful is it to find that folks as far away as Sri Lanka, Slovenia, Brunei, Estonia, Laos, Mongolia, Uruguay, and even the Ivory Coast have seen the TCAA website; pretty incredible! We even had a visitor from Macedonia and one from Kazakhstan. So what are people looking at when they visit the website? Photos are the number one most visited pages and by far the heaviest traffic was by visitors to the 2008 Photo Gallery. The second most visited pages are the biographies of the makers. It just goes to show that fine cowboy gear is popular the world over. From the beginning the TCAA has been an international organization having been founded by gear makers from both the United states and Canada. In 2007 the first member from France was inducted and now in 2008 two Argentine members have joined the ranks of the TCAA. Who knows what lies ahead in 2009, regardless, a global imprint has been established, and as an educational organization, the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association is now officially teaching to the world. - TS

2008 Tenth Annual Exhibit and Sale

The 2008 10th Anniversary Exhibit and Sale was a great success (go take a look at the 2008 Photo Gallery). Once again Don Reeves and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum staff did a fantastic job on the exhibit gallery, keeping it a fresh and exciting display of the member's work offered for sale. Every year the pieces offered for sale are of the highest quality, pushing the makers creativity and abilities to new heights. This year was no exception with 52 of the 57 pieces selling on opening night for a total of $696,240.00 a new record in sales! Also very important to the TCAA and the Museum, the exhibit was very well attended setting attendance records for both the Friday VIP walk around the Saturday night sale and dinner.

Collectible, 2008 10^th Anniversary catalogs are available through the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Gift Shop.

At our meeting this year, the membership elected four new members into the TCAA. They are Armando Deferrari and Pablo Lozano both rawhide braiders from Argentina, John Willemsma a saddle maker from Oklahoma, and Russell Yates a bit and spur maker from Texas. These new members will help us to continue to raise the level of excellence of our crafts, educate others, and bring fresh new ideas to the Association. The TCAA now has 23 active members.

We would like to invite you to attend our Eleventh Annual Exhibit and Sale. With our four new members it will be one of our best shows with many fantastic pieces offered for sale. Please make your plans to attend. - BH

2009 TCAA Workshops

In 2009 the TCAA will have a number of workshops. February 11-14, 2009 will be Ornamental Chasing & Repousse Workshop by Valentin Yotkov. September 22-25, 2009 Silver engraving Workshop by Mark Drain and David Alderson. There is limited enrollment for these workshops so advance reservations are required. Please contact National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum at (405) 478-2250 ext. 219 to make your reservations. Don't miss out on these opportunities!

Upcoming 2009 Events

There are lots of events coming up this year. Make sure to visit the Upcoming Events section of our website to find out about them all.

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