The records of the Missouri Folk Arts Program comprise documentation of the annual work and various programming administered by the organization. The records contain fiscal information, contracts with artists, press clippings and releases, publications, exhibit documentation, correspondence, working files, and files on folk and traditional artists. The records also include photographs, audio, and video that document folk and traditional arts, artists, and events.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTES
The Missouri Folk Arts Program records are arranged into the following six series: Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), Artist Photos, Artist Files, Miscellaneous Projects, Audio/Visual and Oversize.
The Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) fosters the partnership of a master traditional artist with an apprentice by providing an honorarium to the master for giving lessons in the art. Art forms include verbal arts, music, material culture, and food ways. TAAP was founded in 1985 as part of a nationwide initiative by Bess Lomax Hawes, director of Folk and Traditional Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts, to establish state apprenticeship programs in the folk arts. The program’s yearly cycle begins with applications, which include a written application and work samples, which are evaluated by a panel of experts in the folk and traditional arts. Accepted participants continue with lessons that are often documented with site visits by staff or outside evaluators. The TAAP series is organized generally by fiscal year (July 1–June 30). The files include: fiscal and budgetary information, including grant applications to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Missouri Arts Council; correspondence; special events by the MFAP, including Tuesdays at the Capitol; folk arts exhibit text and images; folk arts publications by MFAP, including The Masters and Their Traditional Arts series; master/apprentice files, which typically contain the paper application, some biographical information, and correspondence (these files may also contain press releases, site visit reports from MFAP staff or outside evaluators, audio or photo logs, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other miscellany related to the master, apprentice, or art form represented); and photographs and slides of folk and traditional arts and events. Please note that in fiscal years 1985 and 1986, the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program was called the Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. Program administrators now still refer to those years as the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, and for consistency’s sake, it is so named here.
The Artist Photos series contains publicity and event photographs of folk and traditional artists in Missouri. Artists represented here were generally associated with the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) and Missouri Performing Traditions (MPT) program.
The Artist Files series contains general information and occasional photographs of folk and traditional artists in Missouri. Artists represented here were generally associated with the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP) and Missouri Performing Traditions (MPT) program.
The Miscellaneous Projects series includes files pertaining to the Missouri Fiddle Project (which includes documentation and recordings for the Grammy-nominated album Now That’s a Good Tune), and the Columbia Art League exhibit, “The Folk Arts of Mid-Missouri: The Traditional Crafts, Arts, and Occupational Skills of Boone, Callaway, Cole, Cooper, Howard, Moniteau, and Osage Counties.” This series also includes files and projects conducted under Missouri Performing Traditions, a touring program for folk and traditional artists, and projects managed by the Cultural Heritage Center. These records are organized chronologically and consist primarily of 35mm negatives, prints, and slides documenting the various projects and/or performers, 1983-1999.
The Audio/Visual series contains supporting information for the TAAP program, including: application demonstrations; annual panel meetings to select TAAP participants; conferences sponsored by MFAP of interest to folk arts; documentation of lessons between masters and apprentices; site visits from MFAP staff and outside evaluators; and performances.
The Oversize series is comprised of three scrapbooks pertaining to the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center from 1982 to 1989 and were constructed by Howard Marshall.