EventRichmond Folk Festival
The Virginia Folklife Program returns to the Richmond Folk Festival! On Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9, visit the Folklife Area to see demonstrations by apprentices from the 2019-2020 …
Event“In Good Keeping in 2022” Film Premiere
Join us at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for a film screening and discussion honoring the artists and tradition bearers from the 2021-2022 apprenticeship class! Since its inception in …
Sights & SoundsWalter “Skip” Herman and K.T. Vandyke
Walter “Skip” Herman learned to build guitars from “Uncle” Dave Sturgill around the same time Wayne Henderson did, but Herman became known for his repair skills.
Sights & SoundsMark Cline and Brently Hilliard
Known as the “P.T. Barnum of the Blue Ridge,” Mark Cline is keeping alive the vanishing tradition of the roadside attraction—those haunted houses, singing caverns, historical parks, and outsized food …
Sights & SoundsRonald Dixon and William Hinkle
Stained glass master artist Ronald Dixon grew up viewing stained glass art from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in his native Northern Ireland, spending hours in local cathedrals while his …
NewsAnnouncing Apprenticeship Class of 2019–2020
The Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities announces the 2019-2020 class of Master Artists in the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Master Artists are selected through a competitive process in all …
Sights & SoundsJeff Bennett and Jeremy Bennett
Ever since the automobile went into mass production by the assembly lines of Detroit, it has been revised, altered, elaborated, and reconstructed in small garages and car shops throughout America. …
Sights & SoundsChris Prillaman and Tanner Talley
Franklin County is famous for its long history of producing and selling moonshine, or homemade liquor. Virginia colonists were distilling corn whiskey—boiling a fermented mash of milled grain and then …
Sights & SoundsGrayson Chesser and P.G. Ross, Mark Ross, Drew Sturgis, and Andy Dunton
The Eastern Shore of Virginia, a narrow peninsula stretching roughly seventy-five miles between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay, has long nourished the artistry of waterfowl decoy carving. The …
Sights & SoundsGary Horton and Tommy Horton
Gary Horton learned traditional logsmithing and historic home restoration from the late Don Chapman, widely considered the trade’s greatest master in Southwest Virginia. During his lifetime, Don disassembled, restored, and …
Sights & SoundsGene Williams and Lee Bagley
The early 1900s saw a surge of independent candy makers in Virginia, with dozens of confectioners operating statewide, from Bristol to Norfolk. In 1917, a young candy enthusiast named Shafter …
Sights & SoundsEvelyn Lahman and Dr. T. Michael Gilley
Sadly, Evelyn Lahman passed away on June 13, 2017, shortly after receiving her apprenticeship. A craft originally born of necessity, the fiber arts continue to thrive throughout southern Appalachia. In …
