The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program celebrates traditional artists and helps them pass on cultural knowledge, stories and techniques to their apprentices. This time-tested practice allows dedicated apprentices to study with recognized experts in their traditional art forms and to better understand their communities and history. These apprenticeships support one year of study, but often develop into long-term relationships. Our program encourages lasting and meaningful relationships, preserves knowledge through one-on-one teaching and benefits the community by offering an opportunity to carry on these important practices and vital stories.
As the state folklorist, I travel the Mountain State and meet traditional artists and tradition bearers, people who are practicing and carrying on important creative expressions, stories and histories passed on from their family and communities. I fell in love with this work as I grew up in Maryland. I found out that my neighbor with whom I attended school and church had been apprenticing his dad. He was learning their family tradition of building cuatro instruments from Puerto Rico with support from the Maryland Traditions folklife apprenticeship program. I was amazed a program like this could exist and to discover that similar programs have been established throughout the country for decades. Since then, I have sought out opportunities to learn and share about the importance of traditional knowledge because it teaches us about our communities, our identity, our values and the histories of where we live. My hope for this program is that it inspires all of us to think about the creative traditions we carry on — including those that we may take for granted — and celebrate them so we may connect on a deeper level with our neighbors and members of our communities.
The West Virginia Folklife apprenticeship pairs work together on a self-designed work plan. Teaching artists receive an honorarium of $3,000; their apprentices are supported with $800 and may request up to an additional $400 for necessary expenses such as tools, travel costs and supplies. Ever since the program’s start in 2017, participants have expressed appreciation for the trust and flexibility built into the process, allowing them to follow through on their goals at their own pace. This year, we will accept between seven and nine pairs. The formal folklife apprenticeship lasts for one year and culminates with a public showcase in fall 2025.
Folklife apprenticeships can be in traditional music, dance, craft, foodways, storytelling and much more. The traditions may be based in generations of practice in West Virginia, or in traditional practices from more recent immigrant communities. Traditional artists with recognized mastery in their creative practices apply together with their apprentices. Apprentices can be from their own communities or people with whom they have worked closely with in the past and trust to carry on stories and traditional knowledge. The most promising applications come from a traditional artist and apprentice who already know each other and have begun working together.
Throughout the program year, I visit each folklife apprenticeship pair, record an interview and take photos, all of which is archived in the West Virginia Folklife Collection of WVU Libraries. These interviews document stories, oral histories and reflections on the apprenticeship. We record and share the final showcases on our social media sites so more people can learn about these culturally significant traditional art forms and the people who carry them on. Pairs create a project or give a presentation so that the apprenticeship benefits the community beyond the teacher and student. For example, Joe Herrmann and his apprentice Dakota Karper, both of Hampshire County, performed at the historic North River Mills United Methodist Church and shared stories and tunes they’d practiced during a previous old-time fiddling apprenticeship. People from the area filled every pew in the church to see them perform.
The two have played together since Dakota was 11 years old, beginning with an apprenticeship supported by the Augusta Heritage Center. In 2020, they reunited for a West Virginia Folklife apprenticeship on old-time fiddle tunes and again in 2022 to expand Dakota’s knowledge of the clawhammer banjo. Dakota admits to being nervous the first time she apprenticed with him.
“It made it so that this year, when I showed up with a banjo, I was already used to sounding bad in front of Joe,” she joked. “So, I could be much more relaxed and just felt comfortable.”
In 2019, Dakota built and opened The Cat and The Fiddle (TCTF), a school in Capon Bridge that teaches old-time music through lessons, workshops and group jam sessions. Dakota is an accomplished musician, having recorded albums with bands and her solo album Fiddler Fair, which Joe produced following their fiddle apprenticeship.
“To have the person that I could come to, looking for advice, looking for wisdom, who has spent decades in bands and knows a thing or two … It’s really a great thing,” Dakota said. “In addition to learning banjo, to know this person as a resource now.”
During 2022 and ‘23, we prioritized more social engagement among the entire cohort of apprenticeship pairs via virtual meetings. Everyone involved got to learn about traditions practiced widely across the state. We hosted these voluntary show-and-tell sessions every other month. The pairs shared their latest successes, works-in-progress and challenges. During one meeting, Chris Haddox and his apprentice Mary Linscheid gave a virtual tour of Chris’s basement workbench where they repair fiddles. It was a great way to show the types of tools and parts they had been working with. The meetings usually extended into conversations about history, and the virtual space encouraged participants to ask questions of one another.
In the fall of 2023, we celebrated the pairs’ accomplishments with showcases in Elkins, Fairmont and Clarksburg, which included demonstrations and public conversations. For everyone, especially the apprentices, these showcases and virtual meetings were wonderful opportunities to cross-pollinate; they made friendships and learned to appreciate traditional practices of which they may have previously known very little. Importantly, the mentors and apprentices came away better recognizing how their family or community practices contribute to the mosaic of West Virginia’s stories and traditions.
One apprentice, Brooklynn Oglesby, learned how to cook her family’s traditional soul food from her uncle Xavier. Xavier carries on recipes that span at least four generations in the Beckley and Raleigh County area, where his family still lives today.
“I’ve learned a lot about my family’s history,” she said. “[My family] had a big impact in the community.”
Brooklynn’s experience was just as much about learning family stories as it was how to cook, and now, she hopes to one day teach her sons these stories and recipes.
Whether through family recipes, cherished songs and fiddle tunes, or other important traditions such as heirloom seed saving, language preservation and fiber arts and dress, we must remember that while we may aim to preserve traditions, we recognize that they are not static. People may adapt traditional practices so that they remain relevant in new contexts. Folk and traditional arts are not reenactments, they are not “primitive” and they are not always from a far-off past. Traditional practices are based in communities, and new traditions emerge and develop over time. Folklife apprenticeship programs are designed with respect to the teacher and the apprentice’s work plan so that they may together add their own creativity to their community tradition. I encourage anyone who would like to learn more about the field of folklore to check out the American Folklore Society, and explore their resources based in academic and public folklife research.
The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program accepts new applicants every other year. Applications will be open for the 2024-2025 program from July 1 through August 26, 2024. This will be the fourth round since the program began in 2017. Please note that the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program does not provide job training qualification. I welcome anyone who is curious about the program or who wants to apply to contact me with questions, attend our informative webinars, and visit wvfolklife.org to learn more.
The West Virginia Folklife Program, a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council, is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, presentation and support of West Virginia’s vibrant cultural heritage and living traditions. For more information on the apprenticeship or to get involved, reach out!
Contact: State Folklorist Jennie Williams at williams@wvhumanities.org or 304-346-8500
