Central Appalachia Living Traditions
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Image: Doris A. Fields, aka Lady D and R & B, soul, and blues musician from Beckley performs at The Freefolk Brewery in
Fayetteville, WV. Credit: Jordan Lovejoy
Central Appalachia Living Traditions (CALT) is a multi-year program designed to promote the understanding, and recognition of folk arts and culture in Central Appalachia through a three-part program that invests in folk arts communities while seeding new folk and traditional arts experiences and honoring underrecognized practitioners of Central Appalachian traditions across the region. This new initiative has been developed in response to Mid Atlantic Art’s Central Appalachian Folk and Traditional Arts Research and Survey Project (CAFTA) completed in 2020. To read the CAFTA Project Executive Summary click here.
Mid Atlantic Arts has partnered with the area’s three state folklife programs, Ohio Arts Council, West Virginia Folklife Program, and Virginia Folklife Program, in order to connect CALT with state-based folklife initiatives and promote the sharing of knowledge and resources across the region, particularly in border communities.
This program serves the counties of Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia designated as Appalachian by the Appalachian Regional Commission. For a full list of those counties click here.
Program Areas
CALT has three program areas: Folk Arts and Culture Community Anchors Initiative, Folk and Traditional Arts Experiences, and Recognizing Folk Arts and Culture Champions. Collectively, these new programs are intended to stabilize local venues, create greater connectivity among organization and community leaders, increase the visibility of folk arts and culture, and facilitate the transmission of artistic skills and cultural knowledge. The programs will be launched in phases beginning in June 2021 through April 2024.
Staff
Jess Porter, Program Officer, Jazz and Folk & Traditional Arts, jess@midatlanticarts.org.
Meet our First Recognizing Folk Arts & Culture Champions Partner:
Appalachian Food Summit Foodways Practitioner Fellowship
Mid Atlantic Arts is thrilled to partner with the Appalachian Food Summit (AFS) as they launch the Appalachian Food Summit Foodways Practitioner Fellowship program.
The Appalachian Food Summit is a community of writers, scholars, advocates, restaurateurs, farmers, producers, chefs, and mountain foodways enthusiasts gathered around the table with a shared mission to honor the past, celebrate the present, and support a sustainable future for Appalachia, its food, and its people.
Appalachian Food Summit Foodways Practitioner Fellowships will honor, celebrate, and support foodways tradition bearers and practitioners in the Appalachian region. Awardees may include, but are not limited to home cooks and bakers, seed savers, farmers, community elders, keepers of recipes and traditional foodways knowledge, hunters, and foragers, who have made a significant and long-term contribution to sustaining and supporting the foodways heritage of their respective communities.
AFS is currently accepting nominations for the first cycle of Appalachian Food Summit Foodways Practitioner Fellows. Submissions are due September 6, 2021. Click here for more information.
Coming Soon!
Two complimentary grant opportunities, Pop-Up Experiences and Community Project Grants will provide new resources to organizations organizing and producing events and projects that bring community members and practitioners together around folk and traditional arts practice and cultural knowledge. Grants will support projects that encourage broad public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of living traditions and/or grow and disseminate artistic skill and cultural knowledge within the community – prioritizing community-level outcomes.
To receive news about these new grant programs, sign up here.
This comprehensive program will provide targeted resources and support to select community anchors of folk arts and culture in the region with the goal of dramatically impacting the sustainability of traditional practice and cultural knowledge. Participant communities will be identified by Mid Atlantic Arts in consultation with our State Folklife Program partners and other constituents.
This initiative is still under development and will launch in 2022.
About the CAFTA Survey and Planning Project
Completed in spring 2020, the Central Appalachian Folk and Traditional Arts (CAFTA) Survey and Planning Project was a project of Mid Atlantic Arts in cooperation with the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN).
During this multi-year project, Mid Atlantic worked in collaboration with LiKEN and a dynamic and dedicated group of Field Team and Advisory Group members to assess the needs and opportunities for a folk and traditional arts program in the region of Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia designated as Appalachian. Learn more about the target area for this project.
Mid Atlantic Arts owes substantial gratitude to the hundreds of individuals who contributed to this project by providing valuable information to the Field Team. We deeply appreciate the traditional artists, culture bearers, community leaders and members, organizers, business owners, and arts advocates that generously offered local context and personal insights about their cultural practice and experiences. Learn more about our project partners.
What did we learn?
For a quick overview of the CAFTA Project and findings, please check out the CAFTA Executive Summary.
View the Executive Summary as a PDF
Detailed project findings are available in the materials listed below. We hope that these materials can serve as a resource to others creating, studying, and working in the region.
CAFTA Final Report
A summary of project activities and research methods and presentation of findings based on specific learning objectives.
View the Final Report as a PDF
Download an accessible word version of the Final Report
CAFTA Comprehensive Program Proposal
Program recommendations for Mid Atlantic Arts and the field at large based on opportunities identified in the Final Report
View the Comprehensive Program Proposal as a PDF
Download an accessible word version of the Comprehensive Program Proposal
CAFTA Photo Gallery
A collection of images taken by the CAFTA Field Team during the project
Open the CAFTA Photo Gallery
CAFTA Inventories
Listings of artists and practitioners, programs, and events documented through the program. These lists are not all-inclusive; if you feel your name, organization, or event is missing from this data, please contact Jess Porter, Program Officer at jess@midatlanticarts.org.
Questions regarding the CAFTA Project should be directed to Jess Porter at jess@midatlanticarts.org.
The CAFTA Project and Central Appalachia Living Traditions program serve the areas of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio defined as “Appalachian” by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The specific counties that fall within the ARC’s designation are included below:
Ohio: Adams, Ashtabula, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Carroll, Clermont, Columbiana, Coshocton, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Highland, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Mahoning, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Vinton, and Washington
West Virginia: All counties: Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood, and Wyoming
Virginia: Alleghany, Bath, Bland, Botetourt, Buchanan, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Henry, Highland, Lee, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Rockbridge, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, and Wythe. The following independent cities in Virginia are also within the Appalachian Region: Bristol, Buena Vista, Covington, Galax, Lexington, Martinsville, Norton, and Radford.
About LIKEN
The Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN) is a link-tank for community-based research to build economic futures based on local assets, values, and visions. Visit the organization’s website to learn more: (www.likenknowledge.org).
CAFTA Field Team
To complete the required field work across a wide geographic area, LiKEN assembled a dynamic team of folklorists, community scholars, and traditional arts practitioners already actively engaged in the target counties. Below is a listing of Field Team members.
Sophia Enriquez
Crystal Good
Dr. Katie Hoffman
Jess Lamar Reece Holler
Dr. Mary Hufford
Lucy Long
Jordan Lovejoy and Michael Gallimore
Nicole Musgrave
Bethani Turley
CAFTA Project Advisory Group
In order to recognize and access the expertise and wisdom of the many professionals that have already contributed significantly to the understanding of cultural heritage and living traditions of Central Appalachia, Mid Atlantic Arts assembled the CAFTA Project Advisory Group. Comprised of 14 professionals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, the Advisory Group provided significant feedback and guidance to Mid Atlantic Arts and the LiKEN team throughout the duration of the project. A full listing of members is included below.
Cristina Benedetti
Andrew “Drew” Carter
Danille Elise Christensen
Robert Colby
Doris Fields “Lady D”
Elena Foulis
Rosemary Hathaway
Ellesa Clay High
Emily Hilliard
Steven D. Kruger
Luke Eric Lassiter
Jon Lohman
Cassie Patterson
Travis Stimeling