October Issue 1999
Traditional Southern Crafts Galore At USC's Fifth Annual Fall Folklife Festival Oct. 9
South Carolina Folk Heritage Award winners Carolyn "Jabulile" White, a Gullah storyteller, and Tom Boozer, a decoy carver, are among the many Southern folk artists who will demonstrate and sell their crafts Saturday, Oct. 9, at the University of South Carolina McKissick Museum's fifth annual Fall Folklife Festival, held in Columbia, SC.
The festival, popular among families and Southern culture enthusiasts, will take place from 10am - 4pm On USC's historic Horseshoe. Tickets are available in advance at the museum or at the festival and cost $2 per person or $5 for a family of four. Admission is free for McKissick Museum members. The festival is one of the only opportunities in the state for the public to see the making or performance of traditional Southern crafts.
This year, the festival will be held in conjunction with the museum's exhibition, Myth, Memory and Imagination: Universal Themes in the Life and Culture of the South, which will feature more than 200 works of art and objects that focus on the importance of religion, ritual, family and community in Southern culture.
Performers and demonstrators will include familiar faces from past Fall Folklife Festivals, as well as new artists from around the region. Folk artists will include a wheat weaver, Southern and Catawba potters, a quilter, a braided-rug-maker, a woodcarver, a gourd artist, a net-maker, sweetgrass and pine needle basket-makers, a blacksmith, a twig furniture maker, a cane carver and a painter. Performers will include a contemporary folk rock group, a shape note singer, a bluegrass and clogging team and a blues musician.
In addition to watching demonstrations and purchasing traditional crafts, the public may visit nearly a dozen food exhibits, including ones by Boone-Fox Herb Farm, Finleaf Tea Arts and Saluda Shiitake. The Southern culinary experts will discuss various Southern food traditions, including tea, honey and herbs. Most crafts and food products will be for sale.
Children can enjoy activities from yesteryear, such as pottery making, butter churning, weaving and gourd decorating.
McKissick Museum, the state's only research museum, researches and builds collections that focus primarily on the natural, cultural and folk life of South Carolina and the Southeast. The museum has one of the largest Southern folk collections in the region and is the largest collegiate museum in the Southeast.
Sponsors for the event are Target, Architectural Woodworking Services, Kennecott Ridgeway Mining Corp., Nexsen Pruett Jacobs and Pollard, Columbiasc.com, Lamar Advertising and the Congaree Area Girl Scout Council.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or contact Jill Koverman at 803/777-7251, or visit the museum's web site at (http://www.cla.sc.edu/MCKS).
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