Aug. 14, 2023
Missouri quilters in Washington
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,…
June 28, 2023
Holsapple at Smithsonian Festival
Aaron Holsapple, White Oak Basketmaker, Jefferson City, Missouri Forester Aaron Holsapple is known as “the tree guy,” fitting for his love of the “tree to basket” tradition. He credits three Missouri Ozark families for guiding his craft: the Uhlmanns of Drury, and later the Dudenhoeffers of Linn, who spent decades learning from the legendary Currys of Salem. Aaron Holsapple demonstrated white oak basketmaking at the Museum of Art & Archaeology on October 6, 2018. Photo by Deborah A. Bailey In 2017-2018, Aaron refined his skills over the course of several months with the Dudenhoeffers through the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship…
June 21, 2023
Scrivner at Smithsonian Festival
David Scrivner, Ozarks Old-time Musician Springfield, Missouri To get good at any tradition you have to be really committed to it. David Scrivner, 2021 Many thanks to Ozarks old-time musician Nathan Lee McAlister for documentation he did in 2021 on behalf of Missouri Folk Arts and Mid-America Arts Alliance. Thanks to him, we have an awesome profile of his good friend and fellow musician David Scrivner. Both will perform at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Click on the link here in blue to open a PDF and read the…
June 20, 2023
Sisco at Smithsonian Festival
Marideth Sisco, Ozark Storyteller & Musician West Plains, Mo. “I was a storyteller before I had language. My earliest memories are front porches and firesides, the nighttime filled with the voices of my family conveying humor, love, and sadness, telling our stories.” That’s how master storyteller Marideth Sisco opened a self-portrait she penned for Missouri Folk Arts. We posted it here on our Show Me Folk blog in 2021, on the occasion of the Missouri Bicentennial. We have had the honor to know Marideth for…
June 9, 2023
Martin at Smithsonian Festival
Anthony Martin, Gigmaker Winona, Missouri As a child, Anthony played often near his late grandfather’s workshop, where the elder Martin turned out forged gigs, used for night fishing on Ozark riverways. Anthony mimicked his grandfather’s actions then, but the elder died before he could teach his grandson. Anthony now eagerly apprentices with a master gigmaker, who did learn from the elder Martin in the 1990s. Gigmaker Paul Martin sits with with grandson Anthony outside the workshop in this Nineties photo snapped by Jim McCarty of the Rural Missourian. Courtesy of photographer Anthony’s grandfather…