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…
April 24, 2023
Inaugural Living Traditions Fellows
Missouri Folk Arts Program Announces Inaugural Living Traditions Sustainer Fellows April 24, 2023 COLUMBIA, MO – The Missouri Folk Arts Program has chosen the recipients of the inaugural Missouri Living Traditions Sustainer Fellowship, the state’s newest award to recognize the artistic excellence and lifetime achievement of living traditional artists in the Show Me State. The fellowships honor these individuals’ deep-rooted contributions to their art forms and to the vibrant communities in Missouri that the artists support. An independent panel of traditional arts and community specialists selected the honorees from a competitive…
April 18, 2023
Tribute to Bernard Allen
We’ve learned the sad news yesterday that master luthier Bernard Allen of Naylor, Mo. passed away Sunday, 4/16/2023. Missouri Folk Arts has been honored to work with Mr. Allen many times over the years, first when he apprenticed to Doc James E. Price in 1987 to learn traditional wood joinery. Their friendship started before and continued all these years. Master luthier Bernard Allen (Naylor) is pictured here in a 1991 photo by previous MFAP director Dana Everts-Boehm. Mr. Allen took his joinery skills and applied them to luthiery, crafting fiddles and mandolins. In 2006, he generously contributed his wisdom to…
March 17, 2023
Kim Garcia-Artist Profile
“You’re not going to learn something until you’re ready to learn it.” Kim Garcia Over the last few years, Missouri Folk Arts has collaborated with community documentarians to identify traditional arts regionally; document traditions locally; and share Missouri stories more widely. Nathan Lee McAlister visited southwest Missouri and Wyandotte beadworker Kim Garcia on behalf of Missouri Folk Arts and shared an artist profile and photos with us. Our collaboration with Nathan was made possible thanks to funding from Mid-America Arts…
Dec. 9, 2022
Lee Ann Sours–Artist Profile
“In the beginning I wasn’t thinking about being a fiber artist. I was just thinking about farming.” Lee Ann Sours Over the last few years, Missouri Folk Arts has collaborated with community documentarians to identify traditional arts regionally; document traditions locally; and share Missouri stories more widely. Last year, Nathan Lee McAlister visited southwest Missouri weaver Lee Ann Sours on behalf of Missouri Folk Arts and shared an artist profile and photos with us. Our collaboration with Nathan was made possible thanks to…
Sep. 12, 2022
Ste. Genevieve Legends & Lore Marker
Exciting news! Additional Missouri community adds Legends & Lore marker! Ste. Genevieve Tourism Department installed a roadside marker this year that tells the story of an unusual phenomenon related to noted U.S. Senator and physician Lewis F. Linn. The inscription reads: WEEPING TREE A CHERRY TREE KEEPING VIGIL OVER SENATOR LEWIS LINN’S GRAVE WEPT WHEN HIS BODY WAS MOVED IN 1905. HIS…
May 6, 2022
2022 Apprenticeship Team, Tappel & Kirby
2022 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program: Gigmakers Bernard Tappel & John Kirby Missouri Folk Arts staff is happy to sustain the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, especially through the last two years! In the current year of the project, the 37th annual, six teams have worked over the last several months to teach and learn their traditions. Staff has been happy to support the artists with master artist honoraria, travel, and supplies with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Missouri Arts Council, Mizzou’s…
Jan. 3, 2022
200 Stories, December 2021
200 Stories, December 2021 #ShowMeFolk #200Stories #Missouri2021 #Missouri200 In Missouri’s bicentennial year, Missouri Folk Arts shared 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks in 2021 about folk and traditional arts in the Show Me State. We kicked off December, the final month, with Story 176 and wrapped up with Story 200. 176 of 200 Jeff Bottiger, TAAP Master Artist: 2015 Jeff Bottiger, of Edgar Springs, makes his living full-time as a horner, crafting various items out of the horns…
Dec. 7, 2021
200 Stories, Van Colbert
Ahead of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, the National Endowment for the Arts seeded folklife programs across the country, leading to our own folk and traditional arts program anchored at the University of Missouri. In Missouri’s own bicentennial year, our staff has been sharing stories over the course of 2021 about folk and traditional arts in the Show Me State. Some of these Stories have landed here on the Show Me Folk blog first, as we share portraits composed by some of our favorite community scholars. For the post below,…