CHARLESTON, IL—Performing at Celebration will be White Mule and another third-generation old-time string band, the Embarras Valley Haymakers (Cliff Harrison, and Jesse and Levi Woollen-Danner), plus the Mexican heritage dance ensemble Quad Cities Ballet Folklorico. The performances will start at 1pm on Saturday, April 26, on the Celebration stage.
Also at Celebration will be a fabric collage workshop presented by quilter Edna Patterson-Petty on April 26, 1pm-3pm, and a waterfowl wood carving demonstration and display by Patrick Gregory and Timothy Speight on Sunday, April 27, 1pm-4pm. For more information about any of these events, or to register for the fabric collage workshop, contact the Tarble Arts Center at 217-581-ARTS (-2787) or tarble@eiu.edu. All events are free.
The exhibit, “From Generation to Generation: Folk Arts of Illinois,” is on view at the Tarble Arts Center through June 22. It highlights significant and beautiful traditional art that exists in a diversity of communities and homes across the state of Illinois. From Generation to Generation was created and is being circulated by Company of Folk.
A photo-banner with roots in east-central Illinois was created specifically for the exhibit’s showing at the Tarble. It profiles fiddle player Genevieve Koester, from the string band White Mule, and the intergenerational tradition of old-time music.
Now living in Chicago, Koester is originally from Charleston. She learned old-time fiddle tunes from her father, Garry Harrison, tunes that Harrison learned from Effingham fiddler Harvey “Pappy” Taylor and other “old timers” from this region.
The Tarble will also present “A Morning of Folk Arts” on May 14 in conjunction with the exhibit. The program will start at 10:30am with traditional old-time music, to be followed by tours of the Tarble exhibitions From Generation to Generation, Text & Textiles: Crafting the Lives of Guy and Irene Buzzard, and Global Threads: International Folk Arts Textiles. This event is co-sponsored with EIU’s Academy of Lifelong Learning and is open to the public free of charge.
Company of Folk is a non-profit organization dedicated to researching, preserving and presenting local and folk culture of Illinois and the Upper Midwest. The Tarble Arts Center is one of five sites in Illinois selected to host the From Generation to Generation exhibit and its related programs.
From Generation to Generation at Celebration is a cooperative program of the Tarble Arts Center, the EIU College of Arts & Humanities’ Celebration: A Festival of the Arts, and Company of Folk. The program is funded in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Illinois Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support is provided through a grant from the Ruth & Vaughn Jaenike Access to the Arts Fund, Tarble Arts Center membership contributions, and Friends of Celebration.
The Tarble Arts Center is located at 2010 9th Street on the Eastern Illinois University campus in Charleston. Open hours are 10am-5pm Tues.-Fri., 10am-4pm Sat. and 1-4pm Sun.; closed Mondays and Easter Sunday, April 20. Admission and visitor parking are free.
