Then & Now Apprentice Journeys

Published on July 23, 2019

Updated on Oct. 24, 2025

We invite everyone to visit our YouTube channel, where we are pleased to say, you will find edited videos from all eight Then and Now: Apprentice Journeys oral histories.  Feel free to watch all eight via the playlist, or follow the links below for the most recent additions.

Mo Folk Arts launched a new series in 2016, showcasing former apprentices in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. These featured artists worked hard in TAAP previously as apprentices, later earning their status as master artists. Each year, MFAP staff interviews two “Then and Now” artists, edits video from the interview for YouTube, and prepares a full copy of the interview to archive in our collection at the State Historical Society of Missouri. The project is funded by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri.

[Click on the descriptions below to watch Deb Swanegan, Bernard Allen, and Helen Gannon’s interviews; videos will open in new browser windows. All are closed captioned.]

Master Storyteller Deb Swanegan recalled learning and teaching in the Missouri Folk Arts Program’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in an interview with MFAP director Lisa Higgins at KDHX’s The Stage in St. Louis, Mo on May 1, 2018.

On April 12, 2019, MFAP folk arts specialist Deborah A. Bailey interviewed master luthier Bernard Allen of Naylor, Mo. following a performance at Ripley County’s Heritage Days. They were joined by a small audience, including master artist James Price, PhD, who taught Mr. Allen joinery in 1987.

Master Irish step dancer Helen Gannon of St. Louis shared stories of her apprenticeships in the Missouri Folk Arts Program’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program during an interview with MFAP director Lisa Higgins at KDHX’s The Stage in St. Louis, Mo on April 30, 2019.