March 18, 2024
On the Lookout for Traditional Artists in NW MO
Missouri Folk Arts’ staff is on the lookout for traditional artists in Northwest Missouri counties, from St. Joseph the the NW corner of the state, with particular focus on Andrew, Atchison, Holt, Nodaway, and Worth. Please reach out to staff with names, locations, and contact information. You can find our contact information here: https://mofolkarts.missouri.edu/about-us/our-staff/ …
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 have had the honor to know Marideth for decades, first through West Plains’ Ozark Music, Ozark Heritage Festival, then via our Community Scholars Network, and again via the…
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 was the late Paul Martin,…
May 5, 2023
Mexico Ledger: Kenny Applebee
The Mexico Ledger, the only daily newspaper published in Mexico, Missouri and the surrounding rural area, announced on May 5, 2023, that local resident Kenny Applebee was an inaugural Living Traditions Sustainer Fellow. Kenny Applebee (right) accompanies Boone County old-time fiddler Pete McMahan on a bench on the grounds of the Smithsonian’s 1991 Festival of American Folklife. Photo courtesy Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Association…
May 5, 2023
Carmen Sofia Dence, Living Traditions Fellow
Carmen Sofia Dence, St. Louis, Mo. Colombian Folkloric Dancer, Choreographer, Costume Maker, Founding Director–Grupo Atlántico Carmen Sofia Dence displays her hand-crafted plaque. Carmen Sofia Dence learned to dance as a child in her local barrio (neighborhood) in Barranquilla, Colombia from her mother, her aunt, local elders, and her peers. In her coastal state, the music and dances are imbued with indigenous, Spanish, and African influences. She is proud to share with others the vitality of dance from her hometown, the site of a spectacular four…
April 28, 2023
Red Latina Online: Carmen S. Dence
Red Latina St. Louis announced on April 28, 2023, that Colombian folkloric dancer Carmen Sofia Dence was an inaugural 2023 Missouri Living Traditions Sustainer Fellow. The online article (in Spanish) is available at this link: https://www.redlatinastl.com/noticia/missouri/758 Carmen Sofia Dence talks to students in Shelby County, Mo., schools during a weeklong residency in 2008. Photo by Susan Eleuterio…
April 28, 2023
Kenny Applebee, Living Traditions Fellow
Kenny Applebee, Mexico, Mo. Old-time Rhythm Guitarist Kenny and Norma Applebee pose with his custom made Living Traditions Sustainer Award. Photo courtesy of Mexico Moose Lodge 1706 Kenny Applebee is widely recognized as a mainstay of old-time music in Missouri. He has “backed” fiddlers on his rhythm guitar for decades at contests, jams, concerts, dances, and the Bethel Youth Fiddle Camp. Applebee picked up the guitar at age 14 and credits a regional flat picker for teaching “all the chords I needed to know.” As an adult, he…