Missouri quilters reflect on sharing their craft on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. by Kirk Kramer for the News Leader, August 13, 2023
At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, we enjoyed meeting Ozarks’ own son Kirk Kramer who resides now in Cottage City, Maryland (originally of Greenfield, Missouri and Miami, Oklahoma).
Kirk let us know he wrote the following story for the Greenfield Vedette, now picked up in Springfield’s News-Leader. As the great-grandson of an Arcola quilter (Elizabeth Killingsworth Hargis), Kirk was excited to meet and interview two contemporary Arcola Quilters, who Missouri Folk Arts first met via Kaitlyn McConnell of Ozarks Alive in our Show Me Folk partnership.
Arcola quilter Martha Alsup (left standing) teaches visitors how to quilt at theme Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Ozarks theme in 2023 by B. G. Ostmann