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If you love the Folk School and are interested in our history, I highly recommend curling up with Anna Fariello’s wonderful new book, Craft & Community, which explores the first 20 years of the Folk School, with a focus on Olive Dame Campbell. Earlier this summer, Fariello was given a Lifetime Achievement Award during the annual meeting of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. In addition to Craft & Community, Fariello has written numerous books about craft, curated many shows, and she developed the online Craft Revival archive. Let’s get to know more about an impressive WNC craft powerhouse!

Carolyn Anderson is a long-standing member of the renowned Brasstown Carvers and a member of The Southern Highlands Craft Guild. Always quick with encouragement to new carvers, she possesses a sweet and generous nature and is a genuine embodiment of the Folk School’s values of Joy, Kindness, and Stewardship.

In 2013, I posted a three-part blog serially on the Folk School home page titled “Working Under the Star Part I, II, and III”. The series related a touching description of two work camps conducted at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC in the summers of 1945 and 1946 by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The AFSC is the voluntary service arm of the Quaker denomination. Mrs. Campbell was familiar with the AFSC having utilized several individuals from the organization in the past.

In honor of Women’s History Month, I had short chat with Mary Doornbos, former Craft Shop Manager at the Folk School. The month of March was declared Women’s History Month in an effort to commemorate and encourage the study, observance, and celebration of women in America.

Last fall, I and eight other craftspeople joined John C Campbell for the second session of the Traditional Craft Mentorship program. During this four-week program, we lived, ate, and crafted on campus (socially distanced of course). While we wait patiently for the Folk School to open in person later this year, I thought I’d share a story about just one adventure that befell us in October.

Wishing you a happy May Day! We’re looking forward to dancing around the May Pole together again, but until then, we put together this post filled with photos of years past, a video from 2011, and an excerpt by Nanette Davidson about May Day from The Folk School Cookbook. Enjoy!

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Part III:  Folk School Staff with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Connections
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Part II:   Who were these AFSC people, anyway?
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Betsy Henn Bailey celebrates her 36th year as a Fall Festival vendor and artist. A local artist and teacher in the Brasstown and Murphy area for over 40 years, Betsy has had a great influence on art and culture in our community. The week before the 39th Annual Fall Festival I talked to Betsy about the festival, her art, and her Folk School memories.
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This afternoon, many of our older citizens gathered in the Olive Dame Campbell Dining Hall for the annual Old Folks Party. They celebrated the holidays, visited with each other, shared stories and memories, and enjoyed music, games, and a delicious meal. For many of them, their parents or grandparents were responsible in part for the Folk School being located in Brasstown. When the school started in 1925, hundreds of local residents pledged their support through physical labor, teams of mules, money, and even land donations. Many of the skills we teach at the Folk School today were passed down through these generations, often grandparents teaching children weaving, wood carving, or chair making.
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Somewhere in Denmark right now, our documentary video, Sing Behind the Plow, is being viewed by hundreds of Danes who are being introduced to Brasstown’s version of a folk school. Lissi Oland, a woodturner who lived and taught in Brasstown for many years, and has since returned to her native Denmark, is hosting an exhibit of her large woodturnings, as well as historic photographs of the early days of the Folk School. The photographs were taken in the 1920’s by Folk School’s co-founder, Marguerite Butler Bidstrup, with whom Lissi was very close.
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The stories of our lives where dance and song are called for, go back to faraway lands where kings and villagers alike danced for joy.  Dance as a way to express joy that cannot be contained is part of many legends across the globe.  I know that you understand what I am talking about.  The many threads of our Southern Appalachian story can be seen beginning with the Singing Games or Play Party Games, which are a long time part of a vibrant mountain culture.  Almost any occasion where the earliest settlers and pioneers gathered, there was time to sing, clap, laugh,  and stomp in time with the music they created.  Not too different from what we do now, whenever we are together!
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I had never been to Murray Martin’s house (Hill House) before today. I met Murray many years ago when she used to attend Resident Artist, Billie Shelburn’s painting classes. Murray Martin came to Brasstown in 1935 and was a craft teacher at the Folk School during the time of Folk School founders, Olive Campbell and Marguerite Bidstrup. She certainly gave a lot to the school and the community. To help local folks make a better living, the Brasstown Carvers were mentored by Murray and rose to a place of national recognition for their carvings. She retired in 1973 and lived in Hill House from the 1970’s until her death in 2005.
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It is an absolutely gorgeous day here at the Folk School, 65 and sunny. I decided it was a prime day to get out and do some photography for a grant I am writing for the Hill House, the historic home of Brasstown Carver mentor, Murray Martin. One of the things I wanted to get a shot of was the plant motifs on all of the window casings and doors. These carvings were done by the Belgian engineer, Leon Deschamps, who designed many of the Folk School’s original buildings. After scrambling out one of the living room windows onto the front porch, I was able to get a couple of good shots of these unique images.
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By Julie  Sibley,  Artist, Designer &  Celebrating 25 years  this year, of being a faculty member at the  John C. Campbell Folk School
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The last few mornings in the History Center, I have been downstairs putting together our latest exhibit.  While I was absorbed in my thoughts of arranging textiles in glass display cases, I finally glanced up to notice Danny Wilson outside the window, on his hands and knees, busily working away.   It turns out, Danny was in the process of uncovering a long forgotten sidewalk, steps, iron rail, and front door in front of the History Center building!  Danny, of course, had known what lay beneath the layers of compressed soil, rusted farm implements, poison ivy vines, and lilies of the valley.
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Last week has been a wonderful exploration into weaving history for me!  My dear friend and “weaving Mom,” Barbara Miller and I traveled to Berea College in Kentucky. We spent several long days looking through archives on early weaving programs at settlement schools in the Appalachian region.
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Music and dancing is the heartbeat of the Folk School.  While students, instructors, and staff work during the week, it is at the dances and concerts when the community comes together to have fun.  Free concerts are held almost every Friday night at the school and this Friday Paul and Jerry Wilson and their family will perform.  Groups who play here often travel from afar to share their music, but this week the band will be coming from just down the road.   Tipper Wilson writes about her memories at the Folk School:
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Murray Martin Carving, or “whittling”…