March 29, 2020
2020 Apprenticeship Team, Alexander & Dickson
It is with great pleasure that we roll out profiles of the 2020 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) teams of master artists and apprentices. Our regular Show Me Folk blog readers should recognize both members of this team from posts in 2019. [Be sure to click on hyperlinks for more of the story.] Bob Alexander & Matt Dickson, Blacksmithing TAAP apprentice Matt Dickson (left) and master blacksmith Bob Alexander pose on a bench outside Alexander’s Scrub Oak Forge during a site visit in early March 2020. They are displaying hand-forged lamps and chandeliers. Photo credit: Deborah A. Bailey…
June 13, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Program, Alexander & Thompson
With this final 2019 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship team profile, we introduce you to blacksmith Robert (Bob) Alexander, a second-time TAAP master artist, and his new apprentice. This year, Alexander, of DeSoto, Mo., teamed up with Lisa Thompson, who lives about forty miles away in Ste. Genevieve. Like most of the blacksmiths who have participated in TAAP, Alexander and Thompson are both active members of the Blacksmith Association of Missouri (BAM!). Master blacksmith Bob Alexander watches as apprentice Lisa Thompson works. Photo by Deborah A. Bailey Bob Alexander…
May 29, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Team, Dorairajan & Murugesan
We are excited to introduce you to master artist Smrita Dorairajan and her apprentice Charunetha Murugesan, first-time participants in Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Smrita Dorairajan and Charunetha Murugesan. Photo courtesy of Smrita Dorairajan Since November 2018, Dorairajan and Murugesan, both of Columbia, have been meeting regularly at the master dancer’s studio for the apprentice’s lessons in Bharatanatyam. Perhaps the biggest cultural lesson that we may learn from this Indian traditional art form is that dance often involves so much more than simply how one moves one’s feet. Like most traditional…
May 10, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Team, Kinder & Farrar
Meet Peggy Kinder and her 2019 apprentice Cindy Jarrar, enrolled members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, who reside in Clay County, Missouri. Peggy Kinder and Cindy Jarrar display small applique beadworks at Folk Arts at the Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. Photo by Deborah A. Bailey Since 2011, Peggy Kinder has taught in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program three times helping her apprentices to strengthen their skills and knowledge of applique ribbonwork, shawl fringe tying, and now applique beadwork. Each is a tradition that Kinder observed and began learning at…
April 25, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Team, McCarty & Dickson
It’s time to roll out another profile of a 2019 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program team. Master blacksmith Pat McCarty (left) and apprentice Matt Dickson (right) work on joinery at McCarty’s Washington Forge. Photo courtesy of Pat McCarty Coal, copper, and steel. These are the basic materials that master blacksmith Pat McCarty and his most recent apprentice Matt Dickson require when they meet for eight hour sessions at Washington Forge. With those materials, Matt practices joinery and hammer control, riveting and fastening, heating and veining. With those materials, techniques,…
April 12, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Team, Dence & Francis and Remolina
Once again, we are excited to roll out a new profile of a 2019 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program team. Today, we are happy to introduce readers to master Colombian traditional dancer, choreographer, and costume designer Carmen Sofia Dence and and her two apprentices Sophia Francis and Ana Sofia Remolina. The Sofia-triunvirato! Carmen 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…
March 21, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Team, Boylan & McLaughlin
We are excited to continue to roll out profiles of the 2019 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program teams of master artists and apprentices. This week, we introduce readers to master Irish musician Turlach Boylan and and his most recent apprentice Molly McLaughlin. Boylan previously taught an Irish tin whistle apprenticeship in TAAP in 2008. This year, he is working with McLaughlin on traditional Irish flute. A “selfie” snapped by Molly McLaughlin at a February 2019 TAAP lesson at Turlach’s home in Lenexa, KS. Molly travels monthly from her home in KC, MO for lessons. Photo courtesy of Molly McLaughlin Boylan himself…
Feb. 22, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Team, Hastings & Whiteside
It is with great pleasure that we roll out profiles of the 2019 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program teams of master artists and apprentices. Keith Whiteside and Ray Joe Hastings pose in the shop with two-prong gigs. This week, we are excited to introduce readers to master Ozarks Riverways gigmaker Ray Joe Hastings and his most recent apprentice Keith Whiteside. Most of our readers know Ray Joe Hastings of Doniphan; he has participated in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program since 1996, when he himself apprenticed to the late Paul Martin of Bunker. Just last April, MFAP featured Mr. Hastings in a Then and…
Feb. 15, 2019
2019 Apprenticeship Team, Premachandra & Kanumury
It is with great pleasure that we roll out profiles of the 2019 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program teams of master artists and apprentices. We are especially delighted to introduce readers to master Bharatanatyam dancer Ashalatha Premachandra (“Asha Prem”) and her apprentice Kareena Kanumury. Asha Prem is no stranger to the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program; she taught two apprentices in TAAP in 1988, the project’s third year (it is now in its 34th year). As a small child in Bangalore, Asha was eager to dance and learn the South Indian tradition, working very closely with her teacher Sunandana for fourteen years.
Jan. 16, 2019
Then & Now: Ray Joe Hastings
Once again, we are happy to launch a Then and Now: Apprentice Journeys video on our YouTube channel! Take a look at an edited video from the live oral history of master gigmaker Ray Joe Hastings of Doniphan, Mo. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKowSlSM81M] Ray Joe Hastings with gig. Photo Credit: Lisa L. Higgins In April 2018, MFAP’s Folk Arts Specialist Deborah A. Bailey had the honor to interview Mr. Hastings at the Community Center in downtown Doniphan, where he shared stories about his 1996…