Recently, the N.C. Arts Council announced three traditional artist teams from western N.C. who have received a North Carolina In These Mountains Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship. The apprenticeship provides an opportunity for one generation of master artists to pass along specialized knowledge to a new generation, expanding access to unique traditional skills.
During their apprenticeship year, the artist teams will work together on the transmission of a traditional art form of their region, community, or cultural group. “North Carolina’s traditional arts are vital to the culture of our state,” said Jeff Bell, executive director of the N.C. Arts Council. “It is all too easy for art and culture to slip away with the fast pace of life today. Artists like those in the Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship program are securing a future for vital pieces of our state’s identity by sharing it with the next generation.”
The program is a collaboration between the folklife program of the N.C. Arts Council and the N.C. Folklife Institute, with support from “In These Mountains: Central Appalachian Folk Arts and Culture,” an initiative of South Arts.
Meet the artists
Sheila Kay Adams, Donna Ray Norton and Leila Weinstein
Sheila Kay Adams of Marshall is a key figure in the preservation of North Carolinian balladry, storytelling, and clawhammer banjo playing. As the seventh generation of her family to carry on ballad singing, she has been continually promoting the art to younger generations of her community. She will be mentoring Donna Ray Norton of Weaverville and Leila Weinstein of Mars Hill in both balladry and banjo. Norton is an eighth-generation balladeer originally from the Sodom Laurel community of Madison County, and Weinstein is the program director at the Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies at Mars Hill University.
Patricia Welch and Rhiannon Skye Tafoya
Patricia Welch will be mentoring Rhiannon Skye Tafoya in the art of traditional Cherokee white-oak basketmaking. Both artists are from Cherokee, Qualla Boundary. For more than 35 years, Welch has been a practicing white-oak basketmaker and she maintains the tradition of harvesting, cutting, scraping, and dyeing white oak from its source. Skye Tafoya is a paper and printmaking artist from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Santa Clara Pueblo who grew up weaving red-willow baskets with her father. Skye hopes to preserve and develop the white-oak tradition and use her apprenticeship to create new connections between basketmakers across tribes and regions.
Connie Regan-Blake and Laura Hope-Gill
Connie Regan-Blake of Asheville will be mentoring Laura Hope-Gill of Arden in traditional storytelling. Connie is one of America’s most celebrated storytellers. Growing up in the South, she developed a love for listening and telling tales. Connecting her own cultural heritage from the British Isles to her years spent living in the mountains, Laura will be developing her repertoire of traditional folktales and honing her experience to develop and perform her original stories. Connie’s goal is to share with Laura the tools she will need to become a prolific storyteller and follow in the footsteps of the tradition.
Learn more about the North Carolina In these Mountains Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship program.