Fund-A-Need Program
What Do You Support at the Folk School?
Our Fund-A-Need list represents a wide variety of necessities, from painting easels to woodcarving workbenches and from cooking studio shelving to weaving studio looms. As you know, our studios are where much of the magic happens: learning from your instructor, connecting with your classmates, and tapping into your own creative mindset.
Upcoming Class Collection
A Unique Connection: Scrimshaw, Crankies, Pysanky, Puppets, and more!
Here at the Folk School, our quirky “Unique Offerings” category includes classes that each have their own distinctive flavor. In fact, they’re so unique that they don’t quite belong anywhere else. If you’re ready to explore a delightfully different course, browse these one-of-a-kind classes, and prepare to get your creative juices flowing.
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RECENT STORIES
Join Us for Fall Festival: October 5 & 6
Join us on October 5 & 6 for our biggest event of the year, the Folk School’s Fall Festival. This treasured annual celebration of Appalachian culture, held on the Folk School’s Brasstown, North Carolina campus, heralds its 45th anniversary in October.
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The Folk School Cookbook
Photo Memories from Intergenerational Week 2019
Every year during Intergenerational Week in July, youths ages 12 and up have an opportunity to take classes side-by-side with a parent, grandparent, or other special relative or guardian. It is inspiring to see family members working together in the studios collaborating on projects, working together, and sharing ideas and laughs. This year, from July 14 through July 20, students made tables in the Woodworking Studio, baked cakes in the Cooking Studio, threw pots in the Clay Studio, and so much more. One young student named Christian crafted creations in leather working made from hides he trapped and tanned himself. To see more projects and to take a glimpse at what students did during Intergenerational Week 2019, view the photo album below or on Facebook. Registration for Intergenerational Week 2020 will open in January.
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Talking Old Time with Riley Baugus, Banjo Instructor
Have you always wanted to try clawhammer banjo? In September, we have an exciting opportunity for beginners to study for a week with Riley Baugus. Riley usually teaches more advanced and intermediate classes, so don’t miss this chance to start your banjo journey off with one of the most sought-after teachers in the world! He will return to teach Beginning Southern Clawhammer Banjo, September 8–14, 2019. In the meantime, enjoy our interview!CP: How was your class earlier this year at the Folk School?
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Fund-A-Need: What’s Important to You?
If you’ve been to the Folk School, you know how seriously we take our student comment forms. We ask every student and instructor in every class – that’s about 6,900 people per year – to tell us what would make their Folk School experience even better. And we read every single one.
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Learn to Call Dances in Our Dance Callers’ Workshop
Have you always wanted to learn to call? Join Diane Silver for a week of all-day, hands-on, calling experience and mentorship. The Dance Callers’ Workshop emphasizes program planning, teaching techniques, working with beginners and effectively using live music. Individualized instruction can also include various styles of traditional square dance calling. Two daily practice sessions with a group of real live dancers and nightly public dances ensure plenty of microphone time, particularly because the class is limited to 6 students. Register today!
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Hand-cut Stencils & Screen Printing with Jen Swearington
We are excited to have two Surface Design & Printmaking classes coming up this month with Jen Swearington. Learn to create Hand-cut Stencils for Surface Design (June 7-9) or techniques for Screen Printing on Fabric (June 9–15).
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Paper Thread Sculptural Basketry with Aimee Lee
If you are interested in basketry, paper art, or weaving, and want to learn new techniques, materials, and form, don’t miss our upcoming class with Aimee Lee, Paper Thread through Asia, scheduled for June 9–15, 2019. You will discover ancient techniques of transforming paper into thread, cord, small weavings, and sculptural basketry. Based on Korean and Japanese traditions of jiseung (paper basketry) and shifu (paper cloth), you will learn to spin one-ply thread and twist two-ply cord in completely different ways.
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Thank You for a Wonderful Friends & Family Day
We had a wonderful time at our first-ever Friends & Family Day on May 11! Community members of all ages toured our open studios, participated in hands-on making, watched demonstrations, enjoyed music & dance performances, savored local food, and learned all about the Folk School.
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A Spring Tradition at the Folk School: Dancing around the Maypole
When winter fades and the trees and shrubs burst into glorious bloom, the Folk School tractor lumbers out of the shed and is given a circular turn to mow around the Maypole field. For the last dozen years or more it’s been Jan or John Clarke who climbs to the top of the twenty-foot pole and wedges there a wooden ring holding many pairs of colorful ribbons. As he lets each ribbon drop to the ground, the inevitable wind tangles them up faster than we can put them in the hands of eager children and “grown-ups,” ready to weave them around the pole to the sound of the fiddle, accordion, and banjo.
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White Coconut Cake with Lemon Curd Filling
This lovely cake is perfect for Easter, May Day, or Mother’s Day, a wedding or baby shower or a spring birthday. It’s both beautiful and scrumptious and tastes like the very epitome of spring. If, for no other reason, you want to simply make it to mark the season, share it proudly and lovingly with friends and family.
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Traces of Beauty: Rust Printing with Lauren Koch
Expand your ideas about printmaking with found objects in a new weekend class taught by artist Lauren Koch: Traces of Beauty: Rust Printing. Rust printing is a unique way of mark making that utilizes steel and iron to create images on paper and cloth. I recently talked to Lauren about her work, rust printing, and her relationship with the Folk School. Enjoy our interview!
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Upcoming Classes Celebrate Irish Music & Dance
Do you love the sounds of Irish music? Do you dream of playing a reel or dancing a jig? We have some great upcoming classes to immerse you in the spirit of Ireland! Gain confidence to join in the fun of traditional Irish music and dance in your community and abroad.
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Expectations
It is Thursday afternoon. Outside the writing studio window, the day is bathed in sunlight, the limb patterns on the grass motionless. Inside the studio, writers are at work with pen or laptop, or staring out the window, or sitting chin in hand. Chairs squeak, the printer clacks, the clock ticks. Small sounds that only accentuate the silence. The writing group is focused, which is different from a focus group . . . or maybe it isn’t.
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