DOCUMENT RESUME RC 019 846 ED 376 006 hilnes, Gerry AUTHOR the Folk Art & Folk Passing It On: An Introduction to TITLE West Virginia Folk Life of West Virginia, and to the Arts Apprenticeship Program. Davis & Elkins Coll., Elkins, WV. INSTITUTION 94 PUB DATE A publication 24p.; Photographs will not reproduce. NOTE of the Augusta Heritage Center. Davis & Elkins College, Augusta Heritage Center, AVAILABLE FROM $2 each; 25 or more Elkins, WV 26241 (1-24 copies, copies, $1 each). Descriptive (141) Reports PUB TYPE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *Cultural *Apprenticeships; *Artists; Beliefs; DESCRIPTORS Dance; *Folk Culture; Centers; *Cultural Education; Songs; Tales Handicrafts; Music; Oral Tradition; College WV; *Appalachian Culture; Davis and Elkins IDENTIFIERS Rural Culture; *West Virginia ABSTRACT Davis and Elkins The Augusta Heritage Center of established in 1973 as a College (West Virginia) was has continued since 1980 as community-sponsored workshop program and Rooted in local affiliated, nonprofit organization. a college folk-related activities and sponsors traditions, the center supports primarily through the West Virginia in-state programs and research, This publication describes the Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. various aspects of West Virginia apprenticeship program, explores instruct profiles master artists who folk art and folklife, and examined: (1) folk music and apprentices. The following areas are dances, and step (2) dance (square dances, ethnic instruments; handicrafts, such as fiddle and dancing or clogging); (3) traditional weaving; quilting, chair caning, and dulcimer making, basket weaving, carving, interior decoration, (4) decorative folk art, such as wood local food (5) Ukrainian Easter egg decoration; cross stitching, and (6) traditional farming preparation; specialties and traditional food Virginia; (8) folk speech (7) ethnic traditions in West practices; and (11) (9) folk songs; (10) folk tales; and oral tradition; superstitions; A final section traditional beliefs, proverbs, and Center, of the Augusta Heritage describes programs and activities of the apprenticeship program, including requirements and benefits recordings, projects, publications and research and documentation workshops. public presentations and .community outreach efforts, and photographs. (SV) This publication contains many *********************************************************************** * the best that can be made Reproductions supplied by EDRS are from the original document. *********************************************************************** U $ DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS Office or Educational Ramirch and improvement MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERICI /This document pas bilin reproduced as rccvsoct from trie person or organization originating it 17)1 ) ,,.e _5 C Minor cnangits save Oven made to improve rIxOduction quality Points of view of opinions stall/din lois docu ornciai mint do not necessarily /prowl' TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES OERI position or policy INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) " IN-..-,-... to o CD AVAILABLE EST COPY 9 Cover Photos .)avv, of Hampshire County, passes along the family Front: Master artist Leo. tradition of rug weaving to her granddaughter and apprentice Suzanne McDonald. Back: log front cellar in Pendleton County Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College Elkins, West Virginia 3 1994 1 rising It On fi \i "111111 7 , ;An I All introduction to the Folk Art C.-r Folk Life of West Virginia, & to the West Vilwinia Folk A its Apprenticeship Program text & pnotooraons Py Gerry Milnes design by Susan Rudisill The Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College BEST COPY AVAILABLE ,'hoto apove: Retha and Jake Casto of Webster CDunty snare Ann Cowper. the craft of broommaking with their apprentice. Rose 4 Mat is AUGUSTA? Elkins, in the Potomac Highland The Augusta Heritage Center of Davis and Elkins College is located in community sponsored workshop region of West Virginia. Augusta was established in 1973 as a affiliated, non-profit organization since 1980. Rooted in local program and has continued as a college folk-related activities and research. The Augusta traditions, the Center sponsors, supports, and encourages traditional arts organization while expanding its in-state program has grown to -iational prominence as a the West Virginia Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. programs and research. primarily through OUR PURPOSE: iVest Virginia's folklife and folkways. *To research, document, promote, encourage, facilitate, and nurture expression found in local, regional, ethnic, and related `To encourage wider understandinc, and practice of artistic traditional tOlk cultures. classes, apprenticeships, and public presentation. *To accomplish the above through educational workshops and 5 3 Old world ways were brought to West Virginia by ethnic oroups who t:arne to work in the coal and steel industries. These Ukrainian decorated I are by Mary (Dysankv) eggs Waskevich of Weirton. Mary is also a Master Artist In the West Virginia Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. 4 Folk art is an expression of values that are practiced, performed, and shared in various ways among certain groups of people. Folk art may be evidenced in a handmade object, an oral tradition, or a particular form of dance. It is more likely to be identified with a place or community of people than with a time period. In \Vest Virginia, one of many powerful regional and ethnic expressions of folk art is found in the region's folk music. FOLK MUSIC: Traditional Appalachian mu- lc today has a wide-spread popularity. The old- world roots of pioneer immigrants have combined with a strong regional identity to torn) a rich musical legacy. This heritage is appa rent in \\-est Virginia's regional repertoire, and instrumentation. music. folk mtisiCiaits, sin ger-, wavesot cots Irish The fiddlearrk ed with the earliest and \ orth British .-,ettlers as well as with subsequent groups The banjo and its rhythms were introduced early -on 11, At rican-Americans. The netted dolt-111),T camc with people of German descent and evolved to its present form. These, combined with later-introduced instruments including the .1'211!V guitar. bass, and mandolin. make up theinstrumentation for rx what. singh and in various forms. is recogni/ed as a major genre of Am( rican folk musk. This musical torm has evolved and has been variously popularised as -mount,- in. -old-time,- Nat Reese. blue, .thove: musician iron Mercer Counts. ," -bluegrass.- or -country- 1111.1,:lt. ird desionated Master Artist. hots ever, to popular movement,. no'..11St) released an album on j rue folk 1111.1siilall, rat- little dttention, di tn. AWIllSt,1 label. (Photo \ lost niv their music tor common everyday reasons and purpses. !--)oineone 410 Y.orov.; -n 'n West viromia. v.nere old time Write and bonin tunes and sono= n.hr a soricidt arricd: liar: elk must; ,1 livinci len( E. mans tuoters in time ono :;ihice ()wino to their own sense of home. 10.1: r 1110 v+per t10 Illtfof and the state share an dent of hof,Pnbrif, aunt Dena Knt, reflect., 101 It tid.,<' From top left t.00pl navel special affinity tor the :.- and the mixt,: ( '. tet., . Le: 1-11-, iite or. the nohv kn r, in mer tr dtht too pidvirio. f irlyd':, Alt 11,1111-1os il:e.1 tat hot , c i Dowd', can-,. tion (tur, 1. d tomih. nt barn 18`.). inc lud,", both op pickind and brush ;tiro, ount,rn. in the tirnt:t- in !,L).!, to wilt t. (111USW111),MIC qvIt- 4 6 BEST COPY AVAILABLE IRR _111006 PA. a , ;.* "44*6 7,.4,0"0..';77 -6, *A .1 7 BEST COPY AVAILABLE because "Dad played it," or because "it puts (he baby to might sing or pia% sleep," or because they "needed a tiddler at the dance" \ I hingarian cimbalom player near l airnumt plays because of pride in his Fast-European ethnic roots...1 Primitive liapti.t hymn is led by an elder in a Clay fiddle County church as a traditional way of praising (said. A Webster County tune is still played regularly to celebratea 200 year-old event. An elderly I larman lady sings a lullaby learned from her grandmother in German, the last vestige of that laguage to ha yesurvived from her tore-parents.The "Fo\ Chase" is performed the hunt. Perhaps the on the banjo by an older Brayton Counhan to relive the spirit of oldest reason of all for people to play music is for others to dance. DANCE since the dawn of time, people have been km)wn to dance to the accompaniment of music for ritual purpose. l'odac music and do nce are sti II combined at worship services by congregations in West V i rg,inia 's I lol iness churches. Ihere, worship- pers achieve an altered state of consciousness 1. through unst-uc tured dancing, music, and the cadence of a preacher. At a Vast imcla Celebro- e tit Nil in the Swiss community of I ielyetia, danc- ers circle about an effigy of Old %Ian \\linter before burning him in a bonfire in anticipation of the arrival of Spring. Regular square dances to live music at such places as Smith ville, Ha twoods, Dunmore, and New Creek bring COMITILInitie.-: together for eN. hi lo ra ting social ization while they dance familiar figures to the beckoning of the caller. Minor regional differences in style may be observed at these at fairs, while Above: The annual West Virginia State Folk Festival at Glenville within ethnic communities, vast differ- draws local dancers to a wooden platform in the center of town diverse ences in dancing styles reflect for three straight nights of dancing the old figures to live old-world origins. Greek and Croatian music. f Photo by Doug Yarrow) people in the northern panhandle of West Right: Orville Hartley ts an old- Virginia still dance the IA, as their ances- time flatfoot dancer trdm Jackson County who never tors did in the Balkans. misses a chance to dance to a good fiddle tune. Step dancing, known locally as 4 buck dancing, hoedowning, back step- ping, flat footing, or clogging, has al- ways been a way of visibly and audibly matching musical rhythms with foot- work. Whether mi m icing a barnyard ani- mal, entertaining some "woodhicks" at a logging camp, delighting onlookers at a square dance, or soliciting a drink in a "beer joint," these dancers are satisfying an ancient and universal Urge to physi- cally respond to music. 8 o AVAILABLE BEST COPY CRAFT Traditional handcraft has en, I tired the onslaught of modern technology and has survived, often incunjunc tion with other folk art forms. A lira tonCounty fiddle maker utilizes curly maple wood from a backyard tree to craft '' f idd les on which local I iddle tunes are played. An L'pshur County fiddle w 4 ,41 head maker sometimes carves a Fio I on the peg box of his fiddles. Perhaps the domesticated bull symbolises the triumph of a powerful, complaisant thing of beauty being created from a Above: Homer Summers. an wild element. An older Nicholas County dulcimer maker experiments program apprenticeship he traded a with local wood and patterns based on the old "hog fiddle" Master Artist, pulls a length of oak through the hole in a shotgun for as a youth. homemade die. He will use it to weave baskets in the rod style tradi- Whether basketma:king, broomtving, quilting, or forging hinges, brought to the region by early Gelman settlers. how best to produce tional crafts developed around collective knowledge about items to Below. left: James Arbogast utilitarian items. Much handcraft goes beyond the utility of ordinary of Beverly carves these lidded create attractive objects with pleasing design. boxes from solid wood, using a pocketknife. hickory bark in a twill A Webster County man weaves chair seats with Below. right: Quilt made from northern Kanawha pattern as his father and his father's father did before him. A printed feed ,acks, Clay County, ca. 1948. learned from his County man weaves baskets in a traditional oak "rod" style as the family wife's great-uncle. A Putnam County glassblower still maintains boy. business using the age-old methods he learned in his father's shop as a region origi- I landweaving in the wool-producing Potomac I lighland of talented nated out of necessity, and has continued as a handcraft among scores eighty-plus member group head- weavers. The Mountain Weaver's Guild, an older iooms quartered in Elkins, recently celebrated its twenty -fifth year. Some single family. have served as many as six generations of weavers within a the craft by her A rag rug weaver in Hampshire County was introduced to taught grandmother, for whom she tore rags into strips as a child. Later, her aunt Randolph County her to weave on the family loom. An octogenarian spinner in made by her Swiss continues to spin locally-produced wool on a wheel that was grandfather. 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