2017 Folk Heritage Award recipients announced

The South Carolina Arts Commission and McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina announce the 2017 Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award recipients:

• Artist: Peggie Hartwell, narrative quilt making
• Traditional Arts Organization: the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association
• Advocacy: Dan and Norma Hendricks, for bluegrass and traditional music

The awards will be presented May 2 during a ceremony at the Statehouse. The 11:30 a.m. ceremony is free and open to the public.

Peggie Hartwell’s quilts are a means of engaging with her community and in contemporary issues. Her quilts are inspired by diverse sources, from her childhood memories of rural South Carolina, to current issues, like the plight of children walking from Central America to the U.S., or hunger and gang violence. Her fabric artwork is in the collections of major museums across the U.S. and has been exhibited throughout the country. She has been featured on PBS’s Reading Rainbow and several documentaries about quilting. Hartwell is founder and instructor for Voices on Cloth, which promotes the art of quilt making with a focus on working with K-12 students via classroom programs.

The Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association engages and educates the public about Gullah Geechee history, culture, traditions, and sweetgrass basketry, as well as Gullah Geechee contributions to the social, economic, political and domestic development of America. Begun in 2005, the annual Sweetgrass Festival provides basket makers the opportunity to promote and market their work and share their stories. In conjunction with the Festival, The “Real” Taste of Gullah Banquet offers a more intimate and personal cultural experience, featuring a Passing on the Tradition ceremony, gospel music, and Gullah folklore and cuisine. The Festival’s Gullah Geechee Seminar presents scholars who facilitate, interpret and provide information about Gullah Geechee history and heritage, as well as contemporary issues in the community. SCAFA’s multi-pronged approach ensures that the sweetgrass basketry tradition will continue as a cultural, economic and educational resource for generations to come.

Traditional music is a way of life for Dan and Norma Hendricks, connecting them to their roots, their community, and to generations of young people they have mentored. Their traditional music advocacy shines bright in their mentoring and support of other musicians, especially young people. The Hendricks have been instrumental in the creation and success of such programs as Young Appalachian Musicians (YAM), Preserving Our Southern Appalachian Music (POSAM), the Sweet Potato Pie Kids, and more recently, the Am Jam, a weekly gathering for amateurs at Pickens’ Hagood Mill. Many of their protégés have gone on to form their own bands, record CDs, win competitions, attend college as music majors or minors, and become instructors themselves. Dan and Norma Hendricks have brought bluegrass and traditional music to the forefront of their mountain community through their enthusiastic participation and advocacy.

Also on May 2, the award recipients will be honored by the S.C. Arts Foundation during the South Carolina Arts Award Luncheon, a fundraiser supporting the programs of the S.C. Arts Commission. Tickets are $50 per person. For more information about the S.C. Arts Awards and the luncheon, visit www.SouthCarolinaArts.com.

The Folk Heritage Award is named for the late Jean Laney Harris, an ardent supporter of the state’s cultural heritage. The award was created by the legislature in 1987 to recognize lifetime achievement in the folk arts. The artistic traditions represented by the award are significant because they have endured, often for hundreds of years.

For more information about the Folk Heritage Awards and the ceremony, contact Laura Marcus Green, at (803) 734-8764. Also visit the McKissick website at http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/mckissickmuseum, or the S.C. Arts Commission website at SouthCarolinaArts.com.

About the Folklife and Traditional Arts Program
The Folklife and Traditional Arts Program is designed to encourage, promote, conserve and honor the diverse community-based art forms that make South Carolina distinct. The major initiatives of the program serve both established and emerging cultural groups that call South Carolina home.

About the South Carolina Arts Commission
The South Carolina Arts Commission is celebrating 50 years of public support for the arts. Created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the Arts Commission is the state agency charged with creating a thriving arts environment that benefits all South Carolinians, regardless of their location or circumstances. The Arts Commission works to increase public participation in the arts through staff assistance, programs, grants and partnerships in three areas: arts education, community arts development and artist development. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the Arts Commission is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources. For more information, visit www.SouthCarolinaArts.com or call (803) 734-8696.

About McKissick Museum
The University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum fosters awareness and appreciation of the diversity of the American South’s culture and geography, attending particularly to the importance of enduring folkways and traditions. It accomplishes these aims through original research about Southern life, material culture, natural science, and decorative and fine arts by holding exhibitions, issuing publications and by public programming. For more information, visit http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/mckissickmuseum.