Arts Council
Kentucky Arts Council fosters the traditional arts

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Arts Council has awarded Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grants to six master artists to encourage the continuation of Kentucky’s living traditional arts. The grants enable master artists to teach their skills, practices and culture to less experienced artists within their communities.

The following master artists and apprentices will be working together to conserve their art forms:

• Storyteller Mitch Barrett, Berea, will teach Bob Martin, Mount Vernon.
  
• Fiddle musician Daniel Carwile, Lexington, will teach Karen Jones, Lexington.
  
• African-American gospel musician John Edmonds, Bowling Green, will teach Sandra Dye-Bunton, Woodburn.
  
• Violin maker Art Mize, Lexington, will teach Riley Case, Georgetown.
  
• Bluegrass musician Bobby Osborne, Hazard, will teach Cory May, Hyden.
  
• Storyteller Octavia Sexton, Orlando, will teach Landra Lewis, Berea.
  

The Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program has supported a wide variety of traditional art forms over the past 20 years, including old-time string music, storytelling, Chinese traditional dance, square dance calling, drumming, basket making and the making of Central American alfombras (temporary art carpets of dyed sawdust).

The Kentucky Folklife Program will open a multimedia exhibition, The Makings of a Master: Kentucky Folk Art Apprenticeships, Sept. 15 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, Ky. The exhibition explores the relationships between masters and apprentices and will include Thursday night concerts and Folklife Saturdays with performances, demonstrations and workshops.

For more information about the Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program or the Makings of a Master exhibition, contact Mark Brown, folklife specialist, at mark.brown@ky.gov or 502-564-1792, ext. 4491.

The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, creates opportunities for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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