Published on
The Show-Me state hosts one of the oldest projects in the United States for sustaining traditional arts. Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program was launched in 1985 with grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and Missouri Arts Council with administrative support from Mizzou.
In forty years, the art forms have been vast and multidisciplinary, from performative and material genres to occupational traditions—all passed down within communities in multigenerational settings from every region of the state. In the last 40 years, over 500 apprentices–hailing from rural, urban, and suburban communities–have participated in the project. Working with mentoring artists, the apprentices learn an array of skills rooted in deep cultural knowledge.
In 1985, ten teams were selected in five musical genres—gospel, jazz, polka, bluegrass, and old-time. The mentoring, or “master,” artists hailed from nine counties, from metro St. Louis and greater Kansas City to Missouri’s northwest and southwest corners.
The roots of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program are reflected in the ten archival photos on exhibition.
Images were pulled from the Missouri Folk Arts Program Records, 1982-2012 (C4035) Collection at the State Historical Society of Missouri.
Row One
Old-time fiddler Taylor McBaine (Boone Co.) and apprentice Barbara
Dutton.
Button box accordion player Arthur Treppler (St. Louis Co.) and
apprentice John Winkler.
Old-time fiddler Howe Teague (Dent Co.) and apprentice Clark Miller.
Row Two
Old-time fiddler Dean Johnston (Lamar Co.) with apprentice Mike
McCluey.
Bluegrass fiddler Delbert Spray (Clark Co.) in the hat with apprentice
Michelle Ogle. Kansas City jazz fiddler
Claude Williams (Jackson Co.) with apprentices
and rhythm guitarist John G. Stewart in background.
Row Three
Old-time fiddler Leonard Smith (Newton Co.) with apprentice John
Halden.
Old-time fiddler Bob Walsh (Stone Co.) with one of four apprentices.
Gospel vocalist and pianist Doris Frazier (St. Louis Co.) with apprentice
Alicia Jones.
Old-time fiddler H.K. Silvey (Ozark Co.) with apprentice Dale Silvey.
Sponsors
Missouri’s Traditional Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), funded by the National Endowment for the Arts since inception, is coordinated by the Missouri Folk Arts Program with support from the Missouri Arts Council, a division of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, and the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri.