“We Just Wanted To Celebrate the Art,” by Karen Cernich at eMissourian.com
We were so excited that folklorist Barry Bergey and friends organized a recent reunion of Missouri Friends of the Folk Arts. He and friends founded MFFA in the 1970s to produce folklife events (including the Frontier Folk Festival, 1977-1983) and to document a number of traditional artists in Missouri and Arkansas. After MFFA, Barry brought his rich experience to a new position as Missouri’s first state folklorist and later in Folk and Traditional Arts positions at the National Endowment for the Arts.
Here’s a news article (linked below) about the reunion, Barry’s career and childhood in New Haven, Mo., and his new book with photographer Tom Pich. Stay tuned, too, here at our blog for another story or two about the reunion, and look at MFFA’s Facebook page for many reflections and photos.
Congratulations to Barry and all those who gathered on September 2, 2018 to celebrate MFFA.