Press Release

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Sheryl Hayes
PH: 434-924-6562 FAX: 434-296-4714
Email:  sheryl@virginia.edu
(Photos and an electronic press kit are
available online at www.virginiafolklife.org)

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Virginia Folklife Traditions Shine on the National Mall

For the first time in its 41-year history, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival explores Virginia’s Native American, English, and West African roots. Artisans, craftspeople, artists, workers and performers from around Virginia will be in attendance demonstrating, performing, and talking about their skills on the National Mall in Washington D.C., June 27 – July 1 and July 4 – July 8th.

For Jon Lohman, however, Virginia Folklife encompasses far more than the 10-day Festival on the Mall; he works tirelessly year round to document, preserve, and protect Virginia’s rich cultural folkways. 

Lohman, Virginia’s State Folklorist, has been integrally involved in curating the Virginia exhibition.  Jon has worked closely with Smithsonian Institution staff to ensure that “Roots of Virginia” reflects the great diversity of Virginia’s folk culture by including a wide range of traditions from all reaches of the Commonwealth.

As Director of the Virginia Folklife Program (VFP), Lohman has been instrumental in producing other major folklife festivals in the Commonwealth, including the three years of the National Folklife Festival in Richmond, and Floydfest in Floyd County.  He has produced ten CD’s of Music from the Crooked Road, a showcase for the talents of musicians along Virginia’s Musical Heritage Trail in Southwest Virginia, many of whom will be performing at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

“Virginia is a folklorist's dream.  It's a large state that encompasses some of America's greatest cultural rich regions, including the heart of Appalachia, the coalfields, the tobacco belt, the piedmont, and the maritime communities of the Chesapeake, not to mention some of the most culturally diverse urban centers of the country.  New traditons are continuously added to those that have been here for generations, even centuries.  It's very exciting work,” Lohman recently reported.
In addition to his work on the Crooked Road Trail and CD production, Jon also developed the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship program.  In its first five years, the Apprenticeship program has paired over 40 master folk artists or craftsmen with willing apprentices in order to pass along what might otherwise be a dying traditional craft, trade, or artform.  During the apprenticeship period, the master artist and apprentice enter into a mutually enriching relationship, both cultural and personal, connecting both to lessons and memories from the past, and shared visions for the future.  This one-on-one, nine-month learning experience helps to ensure that a particular art form is passed on in ways that are conscious of history and faithful to tradition. 

Many of the performers who will appear in the Smithsonian Festival have come to statewide and even national attention through the VFP Apprenticeship program. In Good Keeping, a book of photographs and reflections on the first five years of the apprenticeship program, will be published by University of Virginia Press in October of this year.

Since its inception in 1988, the Virginia Folklife program has been one of the best-loved and most publicly accessible programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (www.virginiafoundation.org). 

“The Virginia Folklife Program is a brilliant example of how the humanities can make a difference in the lives of people, of communities, and even states.  Under Lohman’s leadership since 2001, it has soared to new heights and reached out to new audiences. I’ve very pleased that it is part of the VFH family of programs,” according to VFH President Robert Vaughan.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, inaugurated in 1967 and produced by the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, is held annually outdoors on the National Mall between 7th and 14th Streets near the Smithsonian, attracting more than 1 million visitors annually. Admission is free.  Daily events run from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; evening events run from 5:30 to 9 p.m.  For more information visit http://www.folklife.si.edu or call 202-633-1000.
The Virginia Folklife Program is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH), a statewide organization created in 1974 to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth by creating learning opportunities for all Virginians.

For more information, please visit www.virginiafolklife.org or call the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at 434-924-3296