Master Artists/Master Teachers
Master Artists, Master Teachers: The Most Prolific Participants in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program
In this online exhibition, the Missouri Folk Arts Program celebrates the traditional master artists who have participated 5 or more times in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
Since 1984, the Missouri Folk Arts Program has fostered hundreds of apprenticeships between master traditional artists and their apprentices. More than five hundred individual traditional artists, many in underserved rural, inner city, and ethnic communities in every corner of the state, have participated in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
As of 2012, nineteen traditional artists had participated five or more times in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. This exhibit honors those master artists who have worked tirelessly to pass their art form to their apprentices, their communities, and the state of Missouri.
Online exhibition curated by student workers Darcy Holtgrave and Claire Schmidt
William Graves
When William Graves was asked in 1987 if there was anything in particular he wanted to include in Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program publicity about his art or his life, he wanted it known that he’d…
Richard Martin
Richard Martin was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, and in the course of his life lived in Chicago, New York, and Mire, France. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration and worked…
Pete McMahan
Pete (Preston) McMahan was born near Bluffton, Missouri. Throughout his life, he worked in tire sales and service; he was a veteran of World War II. Mr. McMahan became interested in playing the fiddle at…
Joseph “Joe” Patrickus
Joseph F. Patrickus, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois but has been making custom Western-style boots in Camdenton, Missouri since 1978. Taught by his California-dwelling Uncle Aldie, Mr. Patrickus is a fifth-generation custom bootmaker. He…
Vesta Johnson
Vesta Johnson describes fiddling as “excellent therapy.” A fourth-generation musician, Mrs. Johnson is a member and co-founder of the Missouri Fiddlers and Country Music Association. “I started playing fiddle at age seven. I learned from…