National Heritage Fellowships Program
odd: label: Introduction
content: On July 3, 1982, the Festival hosted a ceremony awarding the first annual National Heritage Fellowships. These honors, organized and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), were awarded to traditional musicians and craftspersons who have made outstanding contributions to the cultural life of our nation. Complementing the award ceremony, the Festival presented a series of daily tribute concerts to demonstrate respect and esteem for the talent, vision, and application of the recipients. In addition, an exhibition of crafts by Fellows was shown in the National Museum of American History through August 1982.

Being host to an extraordinary number of human beings from different parts of the world, we in the United States are thereby hosts to an extraordinary number of matured and developed artistic and technical traditions. It is this that the Folk Arts Program of the NEA celebrates through its National Heritage Fellowships. Each year, beginning in 1982, NEA intended to greet, salute, and honor a few examples of the dazzling array of artistic traditions inherited throughout our nation's fortunate history. Each year, another assortment of splendid master American folk artists and artisans representing still different artistic forms and traditions would be presented. The hope and belief was that this could continue far into the future, each year's group of artists demonstrating yet other distinctive art forms from the American experience.

The fifteen master traditional artists honored with the 1982 National Heritage Fellowships had each taken their respective art form to a new height. Many were old friends of the Festival, often having been invited to participate in its earlier years. Each one built upon the inventions, the perfected techniques, the aesthetic experiments of countless artists in the same tradition who had gone on before - singers, musicians, and artisans whose names we will never know. In honoring the recipients of the National Heritage Fellowships in 1982, NEA honored their artistic forebears as well. It is this, perhaps, that truly distinguished these awards - that in the persons of these outstanding individuals we can honor an entire tradition and the long line of earlier artists who have helped invent the many folk art forms that grace our land and our people.

Marjorie Hunt, Heritage Program Coordinator
label: Participants
content: Fellowships Recipients

Dewey Balfa, Cajun fiddler, Basile, Louisiana

Joe Heaney, 1919-1984, Irish ballad singer, Seattle, Washington

Tommy Jarrell, Appalachian fiddler, Mt. Airy, North Carolina

Bessie Jones, 1902-1984, Georgia Sea Island Singer, Brunswick, Georgia

George Lopez, Hispanic woodcarver, Cordova, New Mexico

Brownie McGhee, 1915-1996, blues musician, Oakland, California

Hugh McGraw, Sacred Harp singer, Bremen, Georgia

Lydia Mendoza, Mexican-American singer, Houston, Texas

Bill Monroe, 1911-1996, bluegrass mandolinist and singer, Kentucky

Elijah Pierce, carver-painter Columbia, Ohio

Adam N. Popovich, Serbian-American instrumentalist, Dolton, Illinois

Georgeann Robinson, 1917-1986, Osage ribbonworker, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Duff Severe, 1919-2004, saddle maker and rawhider, Pendleton, Oregon

Philip Simmons, 1919-2009, ornamental iron worker, Charleston, South Carolina

Sonny Terry, blues musician, Holliswood, New York

National Heritage Fellowships Participants

Crafts

Silvianita T. Lopez, 1901-1991, Hispanic woodcarver, Cordova, New Mexico

Orlene Ortiz, Hispanic woodcarver, Cordova, New Mexico

Ronnie Pringle, blacksmith, Charleston, South Carolina

Silas Sessions, blacksmith, Charleston, South Carolina

Music

Pedro Ayala, Mexican-American musician, Donna, Texas

José Silva, Mexican-American musician, Donna, Texas

Beausoleil  -- BeausoleilDavid Doucet, guitarist, vocalist, Lafayette, LouisianaMichael Doucet, leader, fiddler, Lafayette, LouisianaErrol Verret, accordion player, Breaux Bridge, LouisianaBilly Ware, percussionist Lafayette, Louisiana

J.C. Burris, 1928-1988, blues harmonica player, San Francisco, California

Andy Cahan, banjo player, Galax, Virginia

Hazel Dickens and friends, bluegrass music, Washington, D.C.

Alice Gerrard, 1934-, vocalist, guitarist, Galax, Virginia

Styve Homnick, drummer, New York City, New York

Irish Tradition  -- Irish TraditionBill McComiskey, accordion player, Baltimore, MarylandBrendan Mulvihill, 1954-, fiddler, Washington, D.C.Andy O'Brien, 1947-, guitarist, vocalist, Washington, D.C.

Mick Moloney, tenor banjo player, mandolinist, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Eugene O'Donnell, 1932-, fiddler, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania

Douglas Quimby, 1936-2007, Georgia Sea Island Singer, Brunswick, Georgia

Frankie Quimby, Georgia Sea Island Singer, Brunswick, Georgia

Charlie Sayles Blues Band  -- Charlie Sayles Blues BandDarryl Anderson, bass player, Washington, D.C.Mark Puryear, guitarist, Washington, D.C.Charlie Sayles, leader, harmonica player, vocalist, Washington, D.C.Eddie Williams, drummer, Washington, D.C.Larry Wise, harmonica player, Alexandria, Virginia

Mike Seeger, 1933-2009, Appalachian style singer and instrumentalist, Lexington, Virginia

The Popovich Brothers Tamburitza Orchestra  -- The Popovich Brothers Tamburitza OrchestraBob Lalich, 1955-, tamburitza musician, Lansing, IllinoisJohn Lazich, tamburitza musician, Lansing, IllinoisPeter Mistovich, 1914-2001, tamburitza musician, Dolton, IllinoisTed Popovich, 1911-2005, tamburitza musician, South Chicago, Illinois
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1982 Festival of American Folklife
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.SFF.1982, Series 4
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials