Rooted, Practiced, Sustained
News and Announcements
April 23, 2026
Folk Arts in Bloom
Hooked Rugs in Missouri On exhibit at the Museum of Art & Archaeology, opening April 25, 2026 Thanks to artists, practitioners, and scholars like Mary Collins Barile, Boonville, Mo., the legacy of traditional hooked rugs has been practiced, passed on, and documented. Missouri Folk Arts thanks Dr. Barile for her significant input on this exhibit, particularly in the interpretative text. Her book Hooked Rugs of the Midwest: A Handcrafted History is a valuable and accessible read to learn more about this dynamic tradition’s roots and ongoing practice in our region. Three rug hookers are featured in Folk…
Feb. 13, 2026
Award Making Artist, TJ Southard
When Missouri Folk Arts established the Living Traditions Fellowships in 2023, staff knew that the honor required a dynamic, physical memento to symbolize the achievements of these artistically excellent Missouri traditional artists and community scholars. Woodworker TJ Southard, two-time alumnus of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, was up for the job of translating staff ideas into reality. Southard, proprietor of Fresh Sawdust in Perryville, Mo., was eager to take on the challenge. He transformed walnut that he’d harvested previously from his property into beautifully personalized plaques that feature a Missouri Star quilt block, as they…
Dec. 23, 2025
Forty Years of Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program
the history, context, and impact The traditional arts are a cultural fusion of the arts and the humanities, where artistic excellence and repertoire, community ideals, and traditional knowledge are persistently entwined. Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) formally launched in fiscal year 1985 with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Missouri Arts Council. As of 2025, the project has supported 464 apprenticeships—highlighting, elevating, and sustaining a vast array of traditional art forms and artists from every corner of the state. From April to December 2025, Missouri Folk Arts staff have co-coordinated activities supported by a Missouri Humanities’…