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 Alliance with Folk & Traditional 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 funding…
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…
Sep. 28, 2021
Legends & Lore Marker Grants
Missouri’s first Legends & Lore Marker grant has been installed! William G. Pomeroy Foundation awarded a grant to the University of Central Missouri‘s…
June 14, 2021
200 Stories Marideth Sisco
As Missouri Folk Arts staff continues to share 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks in 2021, we occasionally will feature guest portraits composed by community scholars. Previously, we shared a story by Marideth Sisco about the late Jennie Cummings, founder of the Missouri Cowboy Poetry Festival. That story was based on interviews and research that Sisco conducted in 2019. Additionally, our recent post about the Old-time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival was deeply informed by Sisco’s research report. Today, we share something a little different–a self-portrait of one of Missouri’s celebrated storytellers and vocalists. We hope you enjoy author…
June 1, 2021
Ozarks Alive: Springfield Stories
With a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and support from the Missouri Arts Council, our state folk arts staff has been thrilled these last four years to establish new relationships and strengthen established relationships via the Show Me Folk initiative. Missouri is such a large and diverse state to explore that we have broken down documentation of traditional artists and arts to more manageable target areas in collaboration with local partners. Show Me Folk gives us the time and resources to dive deeper,…
April 20, 2021
Ozarks Alive: Springfield Partnership
With a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and support from the Missouri Arts Council, our state folk arts staff has been thrilled these last four years to establish new relationships and strengthen established relationships via the Show Me Folk initiative. Missouri is such a large and diverse state to explore that we have broken down documentation of traditional artists and arts to more manageable target areas in collaboration with local partners. Show Me Folk gives us the time and resources to dive deeper, alternating annually between rural and urban communities.
March 22, 2021
Exhibit: MO Blacksmiths Sampler
In 2019, Mid-America Arts Alliance and Missouri Folk Arts partnered to create a blacksmithing exhibition at the M-AAA offices at the Crossroads in Kansas City, Mo. Bernard Tappel of Osage Bluff Blacksmith Shop provided expert input and loaned objects. That exhibition and accompanying “hammer in” with Tappel and Mike McLaughlin were very well-received, but the event was short-lived. Fast forward to 2020, Missouri Folk Arts hoped to install a smaller version as the newest Focus Exhibit in March at the Museum of…
March 9, 2021
Tribute to Vesta Johnson
We were very sad to hear the news on Friday, March 5, 2021, that master old-time fiddler Vesta Johnson had died. At the same time, we understand from her devoted family that she passed peacefully after recent struggles with cancer. We are of the belief that there never has been or will be anyone like Vesta. It is hard to know where to start with a tribute to Vesta, as we are so lucky that much of her life and her music has been documented for posterity. Certainly, there are files in Missouri Folk Arts’ collection at the State Historical…