West Virginia Folklife Virtual Apprenticeship Showcase:
Sheep-to-Shawl: The Art of Raising Sheep & Creating Fiber Arts
Thursday, June 17, 12:00-1:00pm
Please join us on Thursday, June 17th at noon, for a virtual apprenticeship showcase featuring sheep farmer and textile artist Kathy Evans of Preston County and apprentice Margaret Bruning of Randolph County. The pair, who recently completed their 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship year, will screen a video about their apprenticeship in sheep husbandry and fiber arts and hold a Q&A.
The event is free and open to the public, but attendees should register via Zoom here.
Kathy Evans of Bruceton Mills led an apprenticeship titled “Sheep to Shawl: The Art of Raising Sheep and Creating Fiber Arts,” with apprentice Margaret Bruning of Elkins. Evans is a fifth-generation farmer and owner of Evans Knob Farm in Preston County, where she cultivates Certified Naturally Grown vegetables and raises sheep and poultry. She teaches and exhibits her fiber arts both in West Virginia and across the country and has been featured in Modern Farmer and Morgantown Magazine. Bruning grew up on a goat farm in upstate New York and has been a lifelong fiber artist. She and her husband David raise sheep at their homestead in Randolph County. Learn more about their apprenticeship here.
The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, offers a stipend to West Virginia master traditional artists or tradition bearers working with qualified apprentices on a year-long in-depth apprenticeship in their cultural expression or traditional art form. These apprenticeships aim to facilitate the transmission of techniques and artistry of the forms, as well as their histories and traditions. This marks the second year of the biennial Folklife Apprenticeship Program.
For more information on the event contact Emily Hilliard at hilliard@wvhumanities.org or (304)346-8500.
wvfolklife.org 