Virginia Humanities

Old Traditions/New Virginians Folklife Celebration

Explore the sights and sounds of the “New Old” traditions of migrants who have come to Virginia within the last 30 years. This Folklife Celebration features traditions as varied as Vietnamese đàn bầu music (a one-stringed instrument), the exquisitely colorful Guatemalan alfombra (sawdust carpet) and dance, Hindustani raga singing, a Bolivian tinku dance group, and […]

Eddie Bond Awarded Highest Honor Bestowed Upon Traditional Artists

The Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities is proud to announce that Eddie Bond, celebrated old-time fiddler from the small southwestern Virginia town of Fries, has been honored with the 2018 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. The National Heritage Fellowship, awarded annually by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), highlights the […]

Frank Newsome CD Release

Featuring Jim Lauderdale | July 8, Charlottesville

Doors: 6:30pm, Show 7:00pm $18-$20 BUY TICKETS » Join our Virginia Folklife Program at the Front Porch in Charlottesville on Sunday, July 8 to celebrate the re-release of National Heritage Fellow Reverend Frank Newsome’s album Gone Away with a Friend on Free Dirt Records. Renowned Americana musician and songwriter Jim Lauderdale, co-producer of Gone Away with aFriend, will join Reverend Newsome […]

Frank Newsome’s Gone Away with a Friend

Rereleased by Free Dirt Records, Produced by Virginia Folkife Program

The Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities announces the rerelease of National Heritage Fellow Reverend Frank Newsome’s album Gone Away with a Friend on Free Dirt Records on June 29, 2018. Virginia State Folklorist Jon Lohman and renowned country artist Jim Lauderdale recorded the album ten years ago in one summer evening in the tiny […]

Watermelon Park Fest

Our Virginia Folklife Program will once again partner with Shepherds Ford Productions as a supporter of the Watermelon Park Festival. Watermelon Park was the site of the nation’s first bluegrass festival in 1960. After years of hiatus, the festival was revived more than ten years ago and features some of the finest in bluegrass and beyond. […]

HoustonFest 2018

June 8 – 9 Felts Park, downtown Galax, Virginia: State Folklorist and director of Virginia Humanities’ Folklife Program Jon Lohman leads workshops about the musical tradition of the region with participating performers in both bluegrass and old time music at HoustonFest 2018.

2018 Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcase

Our Virginia Folklife Program invites you to join Virginia folk masters and their apprentices for a celebration of traditional music, food, and crafts at James Monroe’s Highland, just outside of Charlottesville. The graduating class of masters and apprentices from our Folklife Apprenticeship Program will be celebrated as we welcome in the new class. Many Virginia Folklife […]

Announcing Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Class of 2018-2019

The Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities announces the 2018-2019 class of Master Artists in the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Master artists are selected through a competitive process in all forms of Virginia’s expressive cultures. The eight new teams join more than one hundred pairs of masters and apprentices who have taken part in the […]

Ballad Keepers of Appalachia’s Musical Crossroads

The author of African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, a cultural history of the gourd “banjar” and later American five-string banjo in the South, Virginia Humanities Fellow Cece Conway will discuss her current book project and how she traces the earlier musical history of the ballad singing genre, the arrival of the fiddle and its influence upon […]