Artisan Ancestors

In this episode, I talk with my good friend Jason Baird Jackson about his new book Yuchi Folklore:Cultural Expression in a Southeastern Native American Community. Jason tells us about the diverse cultural expressions of this often overlooked community. He talks about his collaborative research with the Yuchi, a native people of the South, who now […]

In this episode we talk with Nicholas R, Bell who works at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery and is the curator of A Measure of the Earth: The Cole-Ware Collection of American Baskets. The exhibit is on display this fall, and there is a beautiful catalog with essays by Bell as well as a forward by […]

In this episode I talk with Carl Lounsbury an Architectural historian who has worked in the Research Department at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation since 1982. He and noted material culture scholar Cary Carson are the editors of a new book that has been more than thirty years in the making, The Chesapeake House: Architectural Investigation […]

No cultural expression is more synonymous with American traditional arts than quilt making. In this episode, I talk with SouthArts folklorist and senior program director Teresa Hollingsworth  about The Sum of Many Parts, a large exhibit of quilts made by 25 contemporary America artisans. Katy Malone joins the interview and explains her work overseeing and […]

Carol Edison tells us about her work with  Navajo basket makers in Utah, including Mary Holiday Black the legendary matriarch of the basket tradition.  An ancient artform, the Black and other families have both continued and revitalized a beautiful type of basket that is both ceremonially and economically important to their community.  Carol shares how […]

In this episode I talk with Brent Bjorkman, the new director of the Kentucky Folklife Program. Brent shares his vision for this organization which recently moved to Western Kentucky University. We also discuss his research with the basketmakers along US 31W, an old tourist route where the old folk tradition of making white oak baskets […]

Tennessee and baskets seem to go together, but their relationship probably is not at all what you think. In this episode, I talk with folklorist Roby Cogswell, the director of Folklife at the Tennessee Arts Commission, about his research of the basket making tradition in Cannon County, TN.  This amazing craft has long been one […]

In today’s podcast we talk with folklorist Daniel Patterson who is a professor Emeritus of English and former chair of the Curriculum in Folklore at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. Dr. Patterson has recently written a monumental work on early gravestones in the […]

In this episode I talk with my old friend Saddler Taylor, the Chief Curator of folklife and fieldwork at the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina.  He has researched the traditional arts and culture of the American South, and helped produce the Digital Traditions website, an online repository of resources pertaining to the […]

I know it has been a while since I made a podcast post. I thought I would share a 7-minute piece/talk I gave as part of the American Folklore Society Meeting in New Orleans this past fall.  I focus on the work of John Schoolman, a friend of mine who made beautiful walking sticks and […]

Look who is 30 episodes old! We are excited to reach this milestone, but are continuing to move forward at Artisan Ancestors. In this  episode we talk with the new Executive Director of the Alabama Folklife Association, Mary Allison Haynie, who has just released into the world a traveling exhibit that focuses on the traditional […]

In this episode, we talk about the the diverse meaning of objects. From Civil Rights quilts to Amish buggies, we explore how objects communicate various meanings. Using a semiotics approach we explore the difference between the various ways that objects serve as signs:icon, index and symbol. I share some observations from Peter Bogatyrev’s book, The […]

In this episode, I talk with Folk Art Curator Carrie Hertz about her work at the Castellani Art Museum, where she has just opened an exhibition about Irish Lace making traditions. We talk about her collaboration with Molly Carroll, a lace collector and restorer to produce this beautiful exhibit and discuss how working with local […]

A ton of information is embedded in historic photographs, especially when the images include artisans and handmade objects. In this episode of the Artisan Ancestors, I talk about my work identifying, organizing, and analyzing historic photograms. Focusing on my work with pictures of oak rod baskets from Southern Indiana,  I share how images can be […]

In this episode of Artisan Ancestors, I talk with Dr. Candace Greene, who directs the Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology or SIMA for he National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. She is an ethnologist at the Smithsonian and has an adjunct appointment with George Washington University Department of Anthropology, […]