The Recognizing Folk Arts and Culture Champions Initiative is a series of folk arts and culture fellowship programs initiated through partnerships established with organizations deeply immersed in communities of artistic practice. These fellowship programs intend to honor underrecognized tradition bearers through local award events that engage the community to celebrate culture and heritage, as well as through local, regional, and national publicity. Each fellowship includes a financial award that encourages recipients to continue their work passing on artistic skill and cultural knowledge to a younger generation.

The National Association of Black Storytellers Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowship

Mid Atlantic Arts, in conjunction with South Arts, is thrilled to partner with the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS) as they launch the Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowship program.

The Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowships are intended to honor, celebrate, and support Black storytellers residing in the Appalachian counties (as designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission) of Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The goals of the fellowship program are to preserve and advance the understanding of Black Appalachian storytelling that embodies the history, heritage, and culture of African Americans, and to build bridges through intergenerational opportunities.

NABS Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowships will provide six (6) $4,000 awards (with limited restrictions) to support experienced practitioners and culture bearers with opportunities to examine, research, develop, perform, and/or document the Black Appalachian storytelling tradition. One fellowship will be awarded in each of the six eligible states.

Fellows will receive funds for travel to the “In the Tradition…” 40th Annual National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference, November 9-13, 2022, in Baltimore, MD. Fellows will also receive membership to the National Association of Black Storytellers from September 2022 – December 2023. 

The mission of the National Association of Black Storytellers to promote and perpetuate the art of Black storytelling—an art form which embodies the history, heritage, and culture of African Americans. Black storytellers educate and entertain through the oral tradition, which depicts and documents the African American experience. A nationally organized body with individual, affiliate, and organizational memberships, NABS preserves and passes on the folklore, legends, myths, fables, and mores of Africans and their descendants and ancestors – “In the Tradition…” .

Applications are due August 20, 2022. Learn more and apply here.

Appalachian Food Summit Foodways Practitioner Fellowship

Mid Atlantic Arts has partnered with the Appalachian Food Summit (AFS) on the Appalachian Food Summit Foodways Practitioner Fellowship program.

The Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellowships are intended to honor, celebrate, and support foodways tradition bearers and practitioners in Central Appalachia who have made significant and long-term contributions to sustaining and supporting the foodways heritage of their respective communities.

The 2022 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows are:

• Yawah Awolowo of Knoxville, Tennessee
• Travis and Rebecka Fugate of Emmalena, Kentucky
• Wayne Riley of London, Kentucky

Learn more about this year’s fellows here. Watch the Foodways Practitioners Fellowship awards ceremony here.

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.

Check back here or sign up for our newsletter for next round notifications.

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 provides 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 in consultation with our State Folklife Program partners and other constituents. 

To ensure long-lasting impact at the community-level, each selected community anchor site will develop a Community Folk Art and Culture Team to represent their community. With the support of Mid Atlantic Arts’ Folk and Traditional Arts Program Director, the team will collectively lead the planning and implementation of the project, including the creation of a Community Folk Arts and Culture Plan that details strategies and activities to increase the sustainability of folk arts and culture in their community, specifically through the intergenerational transmission of artistic skill and cultural knowledge. The Team will then be invited to apply, in collaboration with local organizations and artist/practitioners, for up to $75,000 in support of approved project activities that align with their plan. Members of the Team may include community scholars, community leaders, advocates, folk and traditional arts practitioners, and affiliated business owners. 

• In Virginia, we are working in the community of Bristol, with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum as our key partner. To learn more about our work in Bristol, visit the Virginia Folklife Program’s website. 
• In West Virginia, we are working in the community of Scotts Run, with the Scotts Run Museum and The Shack Neighborhood House as our key partners. 
• The Ohio Anchor Community will be announced in summer 2022.