Folklife Around Missouri: January 2016

2015, the Year in Our Rear-view

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We celebrated retirements and new beginnings at the Missouri Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts' Folk & Traditional Arts Program.

On January 28, retiring Missouri Arts Council Executive Director Bev Strohmeyer unfolded a gift from colleagues, a quilt made by old-time fiddler Vesta Johnson.

Master fiddlers Cliff Bryan and Vesta Johnson saw the releases of long-anticipated CDs from Voyager Recordings and The Field Recorders' Collective, respectively.

Much-deserved awards and honors were bestowed on our friends and colleagues: Jennie Cummings, retired director of Mt. View's Missouri Cowboy Poetry Festival, received a Missouri Arts Award; Gladys Caines Coggswell received an honorary doctorate; Vesta Johnson received a heritage award in Tennessee; The Bosman Twins received a St. Louis Arts & Education Council award; and Anna Crosslin of International Institute of St. Louis received a national award. Photos courtesy of Lisa Higgins

MFAP's Lisa Higgins, Jennie Cummings, and
MAC's Joan White at 2015 Missouri Arts Awards

Folklorist Darcy Holtgrave (right) and Gladys Caines Coggswell celebrate her honorary doctorate at University of Missouri-St. Louis.

We have also been in the midst of major anniversaries, from our own Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program's 30th to the Missouri Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts' 50th. Friends and colleagues published fabulous stories about TAAP's 30th anniversary, including MAC, Rural Missouri, KBIA, Cassville Democrat and the Salem News.

MFAP featured Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program artists, past and present, at events co-sponsored with the Missouri State Museum, the Museum of Art and Archaeology, the Big Muddy Folk Festival, and Missouri State Parks (Scott Joplin Historic Home and Museum; Current River State Park; and Roaring River State Park).

Master gospel vocalist Doris Frazier performs at the Scott Joplin
House in St. Louis.

Master blacksmith Bob Alexander demonstrates at a
Hammer In outside the Lohman Building in Jeff City.

Members of Kansas City's Kuku (South Sudanese immigrants)
community perform at the Big Muddy Folk Festival in Boonville.

The Missouri Arts Council funded nine Folk Arts grants in FY15 (ended June 30, 2015) and also in FY16 (started July 1, 2015). Boonslick Area Tourism members took Lisa Higgins, MAC Executive Director Michael Donovan, and MAC Communications Manager Barbara MacRobie on a tour of the Barn Quilts of the Boonslick, a rural arts project that spans Cooper, Saline, and Howard counties. Lisa Higgins also visited Folk Alliance International for a reception welcoming new Business Development Manager Alex Mallett.

This barn on HWY TT in Saline County outside of Arrow Rock sports the Arrow Star pattern.

Our Community Scholars project continued with everything from planning meetings (February) and "place story" performances (June) to workshops, field trips, and conference presentations and participation (November).

Award-winning storyteller Milbre Burch curated and emceed a pilot project, a "place stories" performance in Columbia in June by community scholars/traditional tellers: Loretta Washington, Gladys Caines Coggswell, Angela J. Williams, Marideth Sisco, and Tracy Milsap. Photos below by Heather Rhodes Johnson

Milbre Burch introduces Made in Missouri: Spinning Place in Stories.

Loretta Washington shared stories about places close to her, from Wardell to Ferguson.

Gladys Caines Coggswell explained the impact of Hannibal's Fannie Griffin Art Club to the community.

Angela J. Williams told stories about the importance of place to family, including her father's funeral home and her mother's beauty parlor.

Marideth Sisco shared stories of her travels, on that very day and across Missouri.

Tracy Milsap took the audience back to her Kansas City homes.

Members of the Community Scholars Network also came together in Jefferson City in November over four days for workshops (blogging, grantwriting) and a fieldtrip on Thursday, November 12 to visit master blacksmith Bernard Tappel and quilter Patti Tappel. While our visit was too short, we learned a lot about Patti's sewing machine collection and her expertise with paper piece quilting. She showed us several completed quilts (her own and family treasures) in a "bed turning," as well as a her current work in progress, a quilt featuring 4" paper pieced squares, each unique. Bernie fired up the forge and quickly demonstrated how to make a fire poker, using hand tools and machines. Photos by MFAP staff

Patti Tappel (center) shows Community Scholars Loretta Washington, Ruth Ann Skaggs, Sarah Denton, and Mary Peura her hand-quilting project.

Community Scholar Caryl Posada-Stillings records Bernard Tappel, as he discusses blacksmithing.

After our fieldtrip to visit the Tappels, members of the Community Scholars Network attended the 2015 Missouri Folklore Society annual meeting. Mary Peura, Angela Williams, Sarah Denton, Deloris Gray Wood, Suzanne Chilton, and Loretta Washington all presented at the conference. The Fall 2015 issue of the Missouri Folklore Society Newsletter provided an overview of the meeting. Photos by MFAP staff

Network members Mary Peura, Angela Williams, and Sarah Denton formed a panel after Wednesday night's banquet to tell MFS members about the Community Scholars project and their own research projects.

Deloris Gray Wood gave a presentation on her work with the Missouri Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association.

Folk Arts Specialist Deb Bailey at the Big Muddy Festival

Many thanks to Missouri Folk Arts Program staff and volunteers for another successful year of documenting, sustaining, and presenting our state's living folk arts and folklife in collaboration with Missouri's citizens. Photos by MFAP staff

Graduate Assistant Jackson Medel records the old-time music jam at Roaring River State Park.

Graduate Assistant Dorothy Atuhura tries quilting with Lois Mueller at Scott Joplin House Historic Site.

Graduate Volunteer Heather Rhodes Johnson increases her music collection at Roaring River State Park.

Director Lisa Higgins watches performances at Current River State Park with Van Colbert,
Photo by Deloris Gray Wood

Visiting the Tappels as part of the Missouri Folk Arts Program community scholars workshop and field trip in the Jefferson City area last November gained me a deeper interest in both quilting and blacksmithing. The project is funded by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and through a Folk and Traditional Arts Partnership Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Bernie and Patti Tappel graciously hosted our group through a tour of the house and the shop. The Tappel home is filled with country charm, homemade objects for every day use, tools of their trade and products of their own making.

The beauty of their craftsmanships showed in the ease with which they create the many quilts and metalworks and in the household goods including soaps and canned goods that they make as gifts, to sell and to use.