Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 21, 2008 issue
Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Hosts Online Traditional Artists Directory
Site Features More Than 200 Artists from Western North Carolina
Story by David Brewer
For the last two and a half years, Watauga Arts Council Folklorist Mark Freed and North Carolina Folklife Institute representative Sarah Bryan have been crisscrossing the back roads of Western North Carolina to locate and catalogue the wealth of traditional artists operating in the area.
From legendary banjo players to fifth-generation chair makers, Freed and Bryan have catalogued artists in 25 counties, finding the finest purveyors of music, dance, crafts and oral expression. The result of their work, a directory including these artists, is now online at www.blueridgeheritage.com.
The directory was created to provide a resource for event planners and educators who want to include traditional artists in their programs and to provide educational resources about the depth and breath of traditional culture in the region, as well as to assist traditional artists by making information available about those who are interested in participating in public programs.
“The idea was to create this online directory to be a resource for people putting on traditional arts events,” said Freed. “There are so many people working out of their homes doing incredible things and those are the people we’d like to highlight.”
According to Freed, he and Bryan split the counties and tracked down the artists through a series of community meetings and a barrage of phone calls. Freed said that musicians represent the largest number of artists in the directory.
“It’s been really hard trying to find a good balance of the various disciplines across the counties,” said Freed.
Through his job at the Watauga Arts Council, Freed has come into contact with many of the High Country’s most interesting artists. Craftsman Arval Woody and banjo makers Clifford Glenn and Rick Ward represent the some of the last practitioners of their guild, while celebrated orators such as Charlotte Ross and Orville Hicks continue to amaze with their command of the art of storytelling. With luck, their inimitable skills will be passed down through programs arranged by way of the Traditional Artist Directory.
“It’s been a really great opportunity to celebrate all those people and the things they do,” said Freed. “Locally speaking, Watauga has a bunch of people on there, and there’s a bunch from Avery too.”
According to Freed, criteria for inclusion in the artist directory focuses on artistic excellence, authenticity and significance within a particular tradition. Highest priority is given to artists who are either natives of the region or longtime residents who have achieved an accomplished level of artistry, have learned by oral tradition; are recognized by their community as outstanding representatives of local or regional culture and are practicing traditions handed down over generations.
“At this point, I think it’s still a work in progress,” said Bryan. “I think there will always be new artists to find out about.”
Artist who meet the criteria and are nominated for the directory but are not included in the directory in a particular round will be held for later consideration. Freed said that the current phase will end in June and will likely result in an additional 200 artists being added to the directory.
The N.C. Folklife Institute, a nonprofit statewide folklife service in Durham, has been coordinating the Traditional Artists Directory project for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. Project partners include the B.R.N.H.A., the National Endowment for the Arts, ASU, the North Carolina Arts Council, Mars Hill College, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, John C. Campbell Folk School, Appalachian Regional Commission and Western Carolina University.
For more info, click to www.blueridgeheritage.com or call Freed at 828-264-1789.