In These Mountains: Central Appalachian Folk Arts & Culture' is an intergenerational initiative that promotes sharing, teaching, learning, preserving, documenting, and supporting the continuity of the folk arts and traditional culture of Central Appalachia. Working with partner organizations in Appalachian Regional Commission counties in Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee, our initiative is providing opportunities to collaborate with master traditional artists; mentor and apprentice artists; community scholars, undergraduate and graduate students; and K-12 students. In These Mountains, currently a three-year initiative, has four primary components.
Master Artists Fellowships receive a cash reward for use to further their traditional learning through travel to meet with other artists or the exploration of the roots of their tradition, or to improve/upgrade the equipment/workshop used for their artistry. Funding for mentor/apprenticeship programs is used to expand existing programs helmed by the Kentucky Arts Council and Tennessee Arts Commission, and was central to establishing a program at the North Carolina Arts Council. Additional funds support mentor/apprentice teams who live in different states (Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia) and seek to cross state lines for collaboration. Traditional artists skilled to teach/instruct students (K-12) are contacted to provided classes in string music (dulcimer, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, upright bass), traditional dance (clogging, step or buck dancing), visual arts (quilting, sewing, pottery, blacksmithing, basketmaking), foodways (canning) and oral traditions (medical lore and storytelling). Working with higher education partners (Appalachian State University, Berea College, Mars Hill University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), tuition assistance and stipends are provided to graduate and undergraduate students to learn about folklife fieldwork. Students and community scholars work conduct oral history and folklife interviews to document the other components of the ‘In These Mountains’ initiative. A selection of documentation – audio and video interviews, photographs – will be included in several regional archival collections. _____ Project Website: click here State: Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee Category: Artist Employment, Education, Health & Wellbeing, Underserved Community Outreach, Youth Services |