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Programs

Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program

TAAP illustration Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Missouri Arts Council, Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program pairs master folk artists with apprentices to pass traditions on to the next generation. Through fieldwork and outreach, staff identifies master artists, urges these artists to locate viable apprentices in their communities, and encourages the team to submit an application to the program. Master/apprentice team meets regularly for lessons over a period of approximately nine months. Staff conducts site visits to document the team on audiotape and with photographs. These materials are archived as part of the program mission to conserve the state’s cultural legacy.

Application deadline: August 28, 2009.

Download the 2009 application materials, or call the Missouri Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program: 573-882-3653.

(image: apprentice Dave Williams and master Don Asbee)

Folk Arts Grants

Project Grants illustration On behalf of the Missouri Arts Council, MFAP also manages Folk Arts Grants, which are awarded to Missouri-based, tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations to conserve and showcase the folk arts in local communities. Funded projects include MAC Folk Arts grants fund concerts, festivals, workshops, exhibits and other artistic events. Previously funded projects include: the Homegrown Folk Festival in Clarksville, the Missouri Cowboy Poets Gathering in Mountain View, traditional music workshops and concerts at the Folk School of St. Louis, the Slavic Cultural Festival in Sugar Creek, Old-time dance workshops by the West Plains Council on the Arts, and Bethel’s annual old-time fiddle camp. Contact MFAP Director for more information.

Applications are available from the Missouri Arts Council: http://www.missouriartscouncil.org.

(image: Slavic Cultural Festival in Sugar Creek)

Folk Arts in Education

MFAP’s most long-lasting educational project is “Tuesdays at the Capitol,” a collaboration each April with the Department of Natural Resources’ Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City. The primary audience is school children who tour the Capitol each spring and fall, usually fourth and fifth graders who study Missouri history, government and culture. “Tuesdays” gives children the opportunity to observe artists as they work, to touch instruments, tools, and objects—and to ask questions. See the Calendar for dates and artists.

The Dana Foundation awarded a generous Arts Education Rural Initiative grant to the Missouri Folk Arts Program to train folk artists as teaching-artists for K-12 schools. Folk arts and artists can provide curriculum enrichment as teachers strive to meet state and federal education standards. Artists learned to work with educators and students, to develop curriculum materials, and to present school programs, including residencies. To inquire about teaching-artists and funding, please contact MFAP staff.

MFAP also developed and Show-Me Traditions: An Educators’ Guide to Teaching Folk Arts and Folklife in Missouri Schools (cover, right), a fifty-page guide that includes grade level expectations, Missouri “Show-Me” educational standards, objectives, outcomes, lesson plans, definitions, student-ready handouts, photographs, and links to numerous online and printed resources. Contact MFAP staff for printed copies; an online version will be available in 2009.

Graduate Student Internship Program

Annually, MFAP hosts graduate student interns from MU’s Folklore, Oral Tradition and Culture Studies program. Interns work in the MFAP offices with the program director and in the field with the folk arts specialist for two consecutive semesters, logging roughly 200 hours while earning course credit. During site visits with apprenticeship teams and at public events around the state, interns gain hands-on experience side-by-side with professional folklorists, assisting with documentation; education; grant writing; program administration; and production of public performances. Read more about the internship program (pdf).

MFAP Support

The Missouri Folk Arts Program receives support from the Missouri Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of Missouri, and the MU Museum of Art and Archaeology.