Show Me Folk

Word Press

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,…
Photographed in an unfinished basement with wooden slats above her head, Mary Luka Kemir stands peering to the right smiling at someone off-camera. Mary is a taller Black woman, her dark black hair is tied in the back in a ponytail. She has high shiny cheeks, and wears a short sleeved white shirt tucked into an African patterned purple and yellow skirt. Mary wears a beaded necklace and holds a saucer to it, scraping the plate against the beads to make music.

May 30, 2021

200 Stories May 2021

200 Stories, May 2021 #ShowMeFolk #200Stories #Missouri2021 #Missouri200 In Missouri’s bicentennial year, Missouri Folk Arts will share 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks in 2021 about folk and traditional arts in the Show Me State. We kicked off May with Story 66 and wrapped up with Story 80. 66 of 200 Kicking off Ava, Mo. Week Edna Mae Davis, TAAP master artist: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993 Edna Mae Davis (1929-2003) was a leader in the twin…
A black and white close up photo of Helen Jeffrey and her apprentice. Helen Jeffrey takes up most of the frame, she is a middle aged white woman with dark brown hair, cut short. She wears large clear framed glasses and peers over at her apprentice with a smiling expression, lips slightly pursed. Helen ears a long sleeved white button down shirt, holding in her hands weaving fabric. Her apprentice watches Helen's hands, a smile on her face. She is a younger white woman with curly hair, a short sleeved white top and a necklace made of individual rolls of thread. She holds onto fabric being weaved.

May 2, 2021

200 Stories April 2021

200 Stories, April 2021 #ShowMeFolk #200Stories #Missouri2021 #Missouri200 In Missouri’s bicentennial year, Missouri Folk Arts will share 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks in 2021 about the folk and traditional arts in the Show Me State. We kicked off April with Story 51 and wrapped up with Story 65. 51 of 200 Michael Massey, TAAP artist: 2011 (apprentice); 2016 (master artist) If there’s one thing Mike Massey knows, it’s preserving tradition. Mr. Massey took the practical knowledge he learned from his grandfather and applied it to repairing old saddles,…
Word Press

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 31, 2021

200 Stories March 2021

200 Stories, March 2021 #ShowMeFolk #200Stories #Missouri2021 #Missouri200 In Missouri’s bicentennial year, Missouri Folk Arts will share 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks in 2021 about folk and traditional arts in the Show Me State. We kicked off March with Story 33 and wound up with Story 50 (1/4 down and 3/4 to go). Story 33 of 200 Howe Teague, TAAP master artist: 1985 The late Howe Teague (Salem) is another master artist who participated in the very first year of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, with his apprentice Clark Miller. Howe Teague cemented…
Image of Bernie Trappel in his Blacksmith workshop. He appears in the foreground of the photo where he works on a current piece for the Focus Exhibit. Behind him hang finished pieces on his wall.

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…
Vesta Johnson is photographed playing fiddle at a home session during a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program site visit. Vesta is an elderly white woman with white hair, peppered with black at the root. She has a focused expression fixed on her fiddle, wearing a pair of thin metal framed glasses, a plain dark brown tee shirt, and a pair of white pants. Vesta sits in the foreground of the photo on a brown metal chair, behind her is an array of home decor (couch and pillows, white curtains, and a wood paneled wall with a landscape painting).

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…
Promotional photo for Missouri 2021 Legends, Lore, & Stories of the Show Me State

March 2, 2021

Missouri 2021 Presents

On March 2, 2021, Missouri Folk Arts director Lisa Higgins joined Missouri 2021 Presents’ host Beth Pike on a panel to discuss the Wm. G. Pomeroy Foundation’s Legends & Lore Marker Grant Program. From the State Historical Society of Missouri: Missouri is rich in its history, folklore, and storytelling. The bicentennial year offers a range of opportunities to engage in our state’s history and culture through storytelling with performances, workshops, poetry, book talks, online resources, and more! In this presentation, hear how organizations around the state are preserving the…
Photographed in black and white, Lillie Mabel Hall is photographed cooking for a church's Christmas dinner in 1992. Lillie Mabel Hall is an elderly Black woman, she wears a black dress with white stripes forming a checkered pattern. She wears hoop earrings and a hairnet, a white sleeveless vest completes her look. She holds a bag of active dry yeast in one hand and is adding ingredients to a large mixing bowl with the other hand.

Feb. 28, 2021

200 Stories February 2021

200 Stories, February 2021 #ShowMeFolk #200Stories #Missouri2021 #Missouri200 In Missouri’s bicentennial year, Missouri Folk Arts will share 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks in 2021 about folk and traditional arts in the Show Me State. We kicked off February with Story 17 and wound up with Story 32.  17 of 200 Leonard Smith, TAAP master fiddler: 1985, 1997 The first thing typically mentioned about the late old-time fiddler, Leonard Smith (1911-2000) is that he had to play his fiddle with one arm…
Master gospel vocalist and pianist Doris Frazier photographed performing with her apprentice Peyton Boyd in 2016. Doris Frazier stands behind her apprentice wearing a long sleeve all black outfit, she is an elderly lightskinned Black woman with short cropped grey hair. Her apprentice Peyton Boyd appears beside her wearing a tuxedo top and black bottoms, he is a younger Black male. Peyton Boyd is playing the electric keyboard and singing.

Jan. 31, 2021

200 Stories January 2021

200 Stories, January 2021 #ShowMeFolk #200Stories #Missouri2021 #Missouri200 In Missouri’s bicentennial year, Missouri Folk Arts sought to share 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks in 2021 about folk and traditional arts in the Show Me State. We kicked off January, the initial month, with Story 1 and wrapped up with Story 16. 1 of 200 Ahead of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, the National Endowment for the Arts seeded folklife programs across the country, leading to our folk and traditional arts program anchored at the University of Missouri. In Missouri’s own bicentennial year,…