Update: We have a limited number of tickets still available! Event attendance will close when we reach 150 or on Tuesday, July 26, at 4pm.
The Virginia Folklife Program invites you to a screening of In Good Keeping in 2022, a feature-length documentary film showcasing eighteen artists from across the state who are working to sustain the cultural traditions of Virginia.
Based at Virginia Humanities, the Virginia Folklife Program is the state center for the documentation, presentation, support, and celebration of Virginia’s rich cultural heritage. Whether sung or told, hand-crafted or performed, Virginia’s rich folklife refers to those “arts of everyday life” that reflect a sense of traditional knowledge and connection to community. Since 2002, Virginia Folklife’s Apprenticeship Program has served over 150 two-or-more person teams of mentor artists and their apprentices, granting funding and support to encourage the continuation of living traditions.
In Good Keeping introduces audiences to the most recent cohort of mentor artists and their apprentices. This screening will feature and honor participating artists from Virginia Beach and Richmond: Lelis Garcia Olaes, who apprenticed her son Ken Garcia Oleas in Filipino baking, and Lemlem Gebray, who trained her daughters in the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. (In addition to owning Angie’s Bakery, a community-focused Virginia Beach business, Ken is an accomplished visual artist who has previously exhibited at Virginia MOCA in the group exhibition Nourish in 2021.) Before the screening, enjoy a reception featuring Filipino sweets from Angie’s Bakery, other light refreshments, and an Ethiopian coffee ceremony demonstration from the Gebray and Seyoum family. Following the film, stay to hear a discussion with the featured artists and filmmaker. This event is co-presented by our hosts, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
Free and open to all; registration is required.
Reception begins at 5:30pm, film screening will begin at 6pm (with a roughly 75-minute run time). Artist and filmmaker discussion will follow the film.
Watch the Trailer
VIRGINIA FOLKLIFE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM
The Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program has supported artists who are masters in traditions ranging from instrument repair in southwest Virginia to Mongolian mask-making in Northern Virginia to growing and grinding heirloom cornmeal on the Eastern Shore. By awarding teacher-student teams financial support and providing a platform to share their work, the Virginia Folklife Program works to sustain the community traditions that entertain, nourish, inspire, and define Virginians. The Virginia Folklife Program, based at Virginia Humanities, is the state center for the documentation, presentation, support, and celebration of Virginia’s rich cultural heritage. The Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program receives funding support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts Folk Arts Program.
