BRISTOL, Va.-Tenn. (May 31, 2023) – The Greater Bristol Folk Arts & Culture Team—a collective of local culture workers—is thrilled to announce the recipients of its grant and fellowship program to support folk arts and culture in the region, thanks to Central Appalachia Living Traditions (CALT), an initiative of Mid Atlantic Arts.
Representatives articulated a shared goal for this grant program: “To promote and support folk arts and culture in the greater Bristol community by providing targeted resources and support to area organizations, artists, and artist collectives with the goal of dramatically impacting the sustainability and awareness of traditional practice, cultural knowledge, and improving economic development and regional vitality.”
The team is distributing over $50,000 in direct rewards to four (4) Cultural Caretaker organizations and eight (8) Tradition Bearer Fellows, along with sharing a variety of professional development, performance, and cultural practice opportunities. Awardees will be featured at the Virginia Folklife Area at the Richmond Folk Festival (October 14 and 15, 2024), organized by the Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities.
“We are excited for this opportunity to celebrate and support folk arts and culture in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee,” said Tyler Hughes, the grant program’s project manager. “We want these grant awards to have a ripple effect—helping the organizations to build capacity and the artists to develop their practice and skills, which in turn will directly and positively impact their communities.”
Cultural Caretaker grants of $5,000 each—focused on small-scale, limited capacity, and largely volunteer-run community organizations—have been awarded to the Appalachian African American Cultural Center (Pennington Gap, Va.), the Carter Family Fold (Scott Co., Va.), Exchange Place (Kingsport, Tenn.), and Mount Pleasant Preservation Society (Smyth Co., Va.).
Tradition Bearer Fellowship awards of $4,000 each have been allocated to broom maker John Ingles Alexander (Grayson Co., Va.), luthier Jackson Cunningham (Grayson Co., Va.), clothing maker Stephen Curd (Washington Co., Va.), musician Pierceton Hobbs (Dickenson Co., Va.), dulcimer player Roxanne McDaniel (Washington Co., Tenn.), photographer Anna Mullins (Dickenson Co., Va.), broom maker Erin Simmons (Wythe Co., Va.), and luthier K. T. VanDyke (Bristol, Va.).
For more information visit BirthplaceOfCountryMusic.org/museum/special-projects/ or email BristolAnchorCommunity@gmail.com.
Featured in Rolling Stone among its “10 New Artists You need to Know,” The New Respects are quickly turning heads and gaining unprecedented popularity. The band’s standout single “Trouble” garnered over 2 million streams and received sync placements with Fox Sports, ESPN, and TNT. The group meshes rock, soul, and pop music with overlays of acoustic tones. Comprised of twins Zandy and Lexi Fitzgerald, brother Darius and their cousin Jasmine Mullen, the Nashville-based group is a true family affair, evidencing the undeniable soul and music legacy that flows through the roots of their family tree. The band has been busy touring with Robert Randolph, O.A.R., and NEEDTOBREATHE, and making appearances at key festivals including Hangout, Bumbershoot, and Rock the Ranch.
Young Mister is songwriter Steven Fiore. As a songwriter, Fiore has spent years building a fan base along both coasts, touring with the likes of Jump Little Children and Howie Day, and regularly performed as a guest vocalist for actor Jeff Goldblum’s (The Fly, Jurassic Park) jazz band in Los Angeles. After eight years as a stable songwriter for Universal Music Publishing Group, Fiore’s own performances have a radio-ready, soft-rock vibe and features lyrics young romantics wish had been written just for them.
The Birthplace of Country Music proudly hosts Terry Baucom’s Dukes of Drive as part of 
The Arts Alliance Mountain Empire (AAME) Public Speaker Series, in cooperation with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, will host two events coming to the museum in November and December. The first in the series, An Evening of Song and Story with Jack Beck and Wendy Welch, takes place on Tuesday, November 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Performance Theater at the museum.
The second event in the series—featuring excerpts from The Book of Mamaw by Eugene Wolf—will take place on Tuesday, December 5. Eugene Wolf has been performing since he was two years old, when he won his first talent contest at the Capitol Theatre in Greeneville, Tennessee. Wolf studied music and theater at the University of Tennessee and worked for The Road Company, a professional acting ensemble in Johnson City, Tennessee, which was the first group of American artists to visit Bashkiria, Russia in 1994.
CIRCUS NO. 9 AND COSTUME CONTEST!
