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Home > Exhibits > 2018 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program

Willie Artison, gospel musician, and Kenneth Artison, apprentice, practicing at Ellis Grove Baptist Church, in Memphis, in May 2018.

Willie Artison and Kenneth Artison

Willie Artison, gospel musician, and Kenneth Artison, apprentice, practicing at Ellis Grove Baptist Church, in Memphis, in May 2018.
  • Willie Artison, gospel musician, and Kenneth Artison, apprentice, practicing at Ellis Grove Baptist Church, in Memphis, in May 2018.
  • Kenneth Artison, apprentice, on drums during a practice session in February 2018.
  • Willie Artison, bandleader for the legendary Bell Singers in Memphis, demonstrates his keyboard playing, in May 2018.
  • Kenneth Artison, apprentice, and Willie Artison, master, discuss traditional gospel music practices, in Memphis, in February 2018.
  • Kesha Burton, apprentice, and R.L. Boyce, master artist, practice drumming techniques in the Fife And Drum tradition, at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, in Brownsville, in April 2018.
  • R.L. Boyce and apprentice Kesha Burton discuss drumming practices.
  • Guest teacher Willie Hurt guides apprentice Kesha Burton as she begins to play the fife that he made her. R.L. Boyce, on drums, watches, at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, in Brownsville, in January 2018.
  • TAAP Fife and Drum team R.L Boyce, master, and Kesha Burton, apprentice, pose with R.L.'s daughter Sherena, herself a talented percussionist and dancer.
  • Panamanian-American seamstress Malvina Carrera helps apprentice Angela Webb fasten and assemble the top piece of the pollera dress they have made together, here worn for the first time, in Knoxville, in May 2018.
  • Malvina Carrera displays fabric from which she and apprentice Angela Webb will eventually create a complete pollera.
  • Apprentice Angela Webb carefully shows one of her handmade tembleques--a beaded headpiece worn in Panama with the pollera dress.
  • Apprentice Angela Webb practices the fine sewing techniques necessary to create the elements of the pollera dress, in Knoxville, in January 2018.
  • Fiddler Michael DeFosche listens as apprentice Trenton Caruthers works out a tune they are practicing, on a Saturday morning at the Highway 111 Flea Market, in Cookeville, in December 2017.
  • Michael DeFosche, master artist, and Trenton Caruthers, apprentice, on stage together at the Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival, in Caryville, in September 2017.
  • Michael DeFosche, master artist, and Trenton Caruthers, apprentice, on stage together at the Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival, in Caryville, in September 2017.
  • Fiddler Michael DeFosche, playing as part of the tribute to the Old LaFollette Fiddler's Convention, in Caryville, in September 2017.
  • Luthier Manuel Delgado observes Ava Delgado, apprentice, at work in January 2018 on a custom mandolin, at the Delgado Guitars shop in Nashville
  • Ava Delgado, apprentice luthier, prepares a measurement.
  • Manuel Delgado instructs Ava Delgado, apprentice, on the proper technique for planing what will become the neck of her custom mandolin. Ava represents the fourth generation of luthiers in the Delgado family.
  • Manuel Delgado, master luthier, points out details in the early construction of a mandolin.
  • Louis Frazor, master, helps lead dancers through a square dance set, at the Breaking Up Winter event in Lebanon, in March 2018.
  • Daniel Rothwell, apprentice square dance caller, practices at the College Grove Community Center, in December 2017
  • Louis Frazor, master, and Daniel Rothwell, apprentice, calling a square dance together, at Cedars of Lebanon State Park
  • Daniel Rothwell, apprentice, breaks from calling and watches the square dancers, at Cedars of Lebanon State Park, in March.
  • Thomas Maupin, master buck dancer, and Jake Fennell, apprentice, watch each other closely while dancing at the College Grove Community Center, in December 2017.
  • Thomas Maupin, NEA National Heritage Fellow, holds his dance board, at Uncle Dave Macon Days, in Murfreesboro, in July 2017.
  • Jake Fennell, apprentice buck dancer, competing in the youth division at the Williamson County Fair, in 2016.
  • Thomas Maupin, master, and Jack Fennell, apprentice, demonstrate their distinctive buck dancing styles, on stage at the Breaking Up Winter event, in March 2018.
  • Louis Newberry, Malika Scheu, apprentice, and Mark Newberry, master, at work removing the outer bark of a hickory log in their Macon County chair making workshop.
  • Malika Scheu, apprentice chair maker, smoothing a chair post on a turning lathe.
  • Malika Scheu, apprentice, with a walnut bar stool--her first completed chair.
  • Sue Williams, master, and Michelle Hennessee, apprentice, using a froe and mallet to split the white oak that will eventually supply all the parts of their completed baskets.
  • Michelle Hennessee, apprentice, inserting ribs into the basket rim, in Morrison, Tennessee, in February 2018.
  • A detailed, color-coded white oak basket diagram, prepared by master artist Sue Williams.
  • Sue Williams, master, trimming a rib of a white oak basket in progress.
2018 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program

This program is designed to encourage the preservation of our state’s diverse folklife traditions, especially those that are rare or endangered. Learn more.

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Address: 401 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Nashville, TN 37243
Phone: 615-741-1701

For accessibility accommodation requests including alternate digital formats, captioning, ASL, and assistive technologies please contact Kim Johnson, Director of Arts Access, 615-532-9797.

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