Tag: Music

Save the Dates: 2025 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcases

Save the Dates: 2025 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcases Come celebrate the achievements of the 2024-25 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program participants! West Virginia Folklife is hosting TWO free showcases featuring demonstrations and performances, open to the public. Refreshments provided. Meet the folklife apprenticeship pairs and learn about traditional arts of West Virginia! Saturday, November 1, 2025 Location: West…

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“Rediscovering Old Friends” in Retirement

Bob Smakula, owner and proprietor of Smakula Fretted Instruments in Randolph County looks forward to devoting time to his own long-awaiting projects in retirement. Over the last 50 years, Bob built his instrument repair career based on his passion for vintage stringed instruments, teaching, and playing music.

Watch the 2022-2023 Folklife Apprenticeship Showcases

If you missed the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship showcases last fall, you can now watch the recordings on the West Virginia Folklife YouTube channel! These showcases celebrate traditional art forms in West Virginia and their practitioners who are passing on creative traditional knowledge. The videos are filled with engaging stories, experiences, performances, and conversations among…

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2024-2025 Folklife Apprenticeship Application and Guidelines Now Available

2024-2025 Folklife Apprenticeship Application and Guidelines Now Available APPLICATION DEADLINE: August 26, 2024 The West Virginia Folklife Program, a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council, is now accepting applications for its statewide Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Hosted biennially, this program supports traditional artists working with dedicated apprentices on a yearlong apprenticeship in their cultural expression…

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Author Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth in Charleston at Taylor Books, June 21

On Friday, June 21, 2024 at 5:30PM, State Folklorist Jennie Williams will host a conversation with author and folklorist Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth about his new book Finding the Singing Spruce: Musical Instrument Makers and Appalachia’s Mountain Forests at Taylor Books, located at 226 Capitol St, Charleston, WV 25301. This free event takes place as part of…

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Apply for a Legends & Lore Marker Grant

Legends & Lore Marker Grant Program Seeking Applications Application Deadline: April 29, 2024Next window to apply: August 26, 2024 – October 14, 2024 The William G. Pomeroy Foundation is accepting applications for its Legends & Lore Marker Grant Program. The program highlights local folklife and promotes cultural tourism in the participating states in the United…

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A Summer at the Augusta Heritage Center

A version of this article is published in the Winter 2023 issue of Goldenseal magazine. It is written by West Virginia State Folklorist Jennie Williams and edited by Laiken Blankenship. The Augusta Heritage Center celebrated its 50th anniversary of providing enriching educational programming in the folk and traditional arts in 2023. In the summer, the Center hosts three…

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