South Arts In These Mountains Folklife Interviews and Fieldwork

Collection

Identifier: BCA 0294

Staff Only

In These Mountains

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Scope and Contents

These interviews focus on the central Appalachian counties of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee as defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission. They cover topics ranging from foodways (preserving, winemaking, barbecue, meat processing, etc.), music (including bluegrass, Scottish, punk, ballads, old-time, jazz, blues, gospel, and sacred music), storytelling and religion, agriculture (farming, pest control, home gardening, insect pollination, etc.), and traditional art (basketry, quiltmaking, blacksmithing, cornhusk dolls). The collection also includes site visits and documentation of arts education programs funded by South Arts and its partner organizations.

Interviews for this collection were recorded both in-person and, due to the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis in 2020-2021, remotely. Each interview folder generally includes an audio or video recording, or both. Most interviews include a topic log of the interview’s audio or video recording. Interview folders may also include transcripts, photographs taken at the time of the interview, or photographs contributed by the informants. Most interview folders also contain an Informant Data Sheet with basic biographical and subject information about the informant, or a Site Visit Information sheet with information about the program being observed.

One goal of the program is to provide training and education to fieldworkers and students. As a result, the interviews in this collection vary in quality and completeness.

Dates

Creation: 2019-2021

Creator

South Arts (Organization). (Compiler, Organization)

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright has been assigned to South Arts. For permission to publish materials created by the donor, contact South Arts for reproduction permissions. Interviews lacking completed release forms may require additional permissions.

Biographical / Historical

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, South Arts is a nonprofit regional arts organization empowering artists, organizations, and communities, and increasing access to arts and culture. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the State Arts Agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee — with additional funding from other public and private donors such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — South Arts supports artists and organizations through a rich and responsive portfolio of grants, fellowships, and programs.

In These Mountains: Central Appalachian Folk Arts & Culture is an intergenerational initiative that promotes sharing, teaching, learning, preserving, documenting, and supporting the continuity of the folk arts and traditional culture of Central Appalachia. Working with partner organizations in Appalachian Regional Commission counties in Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee, the initiative provides opportunities to collaborate with master and emerging traditional artists; support mentor and apprentice artists; guide community scholar, and undergraduate and graduate student fieldwork; provide granting opportunities; and engage K-12 students and their families via folk arts education. In These Mountains is currently a six-year initiative.

Extent

1.2 Terabytes (One hard drive containing approximately 124 digital audio files, 320 digital video files, 280 digital documents and 1,275 digital images.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in series by fieldworker, then further organized by informant. Where there are multiple interviewees, or interviews are grouped by event or location (as in the case of youth traditional music program site visits or family interviews), multiple interview files and their related materials are included in the same digital folder.

Each informant folder contains four sub-folders: 1. Photos and photo logs, 2. Audio, video and logs, 3. Release forms, and 4. Data sheets and other documents, which typically contains an informant data sheet or site visit form, as well as fieldnotes and transcripts, if present.

General

The South Arts 'In These Mountains" collection documents various aspects of folk arts and culture in the central Appalachian counties of Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina through the use of audio / video recording and photography. Conducted during the period 2019-2021, the interviews document a wide range of artistic expression including pottery, puppetry, hip-hop and rap music, ukulele music, tattoo arts, food preservation, clogging, chair caning, quiltmaking, hair braiding, basketry, preaching, and land use. In addition to the work of individual artists, folk arts education programs are also documented. The "In These Mountains" interviews were conducted by area undergraduate and graduate students and unaffiliated community scholars under contract with the nonprofit organization South Arts. Berea students were Colby Bingham, Shaylan Clark, and Stacey Keruwa.