VOA常速英语:Appalachian Craft Guild Preserves Unique Culture

The Appalachian Mountains, which parallel America's east coast, are old, worn down by time and the elements into gently rolling, deeply wooded hills and valleys. The people who live in this largely poor region have developed their own music, art and way of life. It's a unique culture that a century-old organization is working hard to preserve and promote.

At the Folk Art Center of the Appalachian Craft Guild, Marlow Gates demonstrates the ancient art of broom making for a visitor. His brooms aren't exactly the typical work-a-day tools of that name; they're a bit more whimsical.

For example, the broom on display in front of Gates' stall has not one, but three sweeping heads, and he explains, with a twinkle in his eye, "That one I call my 'Standing Broom Only.'" He adds that he sometimes calls it his Politician's Broom "because, although it looks really good and it looks like it should do a lot, it really doesn't get much done. It sorta just sits there." 

(Click to view audio slideshow of Gates at work.)

Living reminders of a romanticized past

Americans have long viewed the Appalachians the way visitors see Gates' brooms: beautiful, but a little wild, too. As the Industrial Revolution took hold in U.S. cities in the 1800s, Appalachian communities remained largely undeveloped. The people here came to be seen as different, even backward. But as most Americans settled into an urban existence, mountain people were also viewed somewhat nostalgically.

As Craft Guild archivist Deb Schillo explains, they were living reminders of the nation's pioneering past.

"What they referred to them as was 'contemporary ancestors,' that they were contemporary people who still lived like our ancestors would have."

She adds that by the 1880s and '90s, they began to see these people as in need of help, because the Industrial Revolution eventually did reach the mountains.

America wanted the lumber and coal found there to fuel the nation's growth. Schillo says development pressures were threatening to destroy mountain culture, "because the trend was to sell off your property for very cheap prices and move to a city where you would get a regular job in a mill, but you'd be off the land. You would've given up your whole lifestyle."

A distinct culture and way of life worthy of preservation

One of those most determined to see mountain culture preserved was a Presbyterian missionary named Frances Goodrich. She had a degree in art from prestigious Yale University and recognized the unique national treasure represented by mountain handcrafts. So Goodrich went looking for the most talented artisans. Schillo says she trekked into remote corners of the Appalachians, "and there she found women who knew how to do the natural dyes and knew how to take materials from the woodlands to make baskets, and fibers for spinning."

"And she was able to begin collecting people together to exchange their different talents and to learn new skills and began sort of a kernel of what became the guild."

Organized into a formal association in 1930, the Appalachian Craft Guild currently has more than 900 members living in nine states. Schillo says efforts by the guild and others have been remarkably successful. Last year, the handcrafts market here in North Carolina alone was valued at more than $206 million.

A way of life becomes a livelihood

But the value of that market to the artisans themselves can't be measured.

"We have testimonies in the archives of people who [said], You know, 'We wouldn't have made it without the guild, if we hadn't had a market for our crafts.' They could sell their coverlets and quilts and baskets and get money that could then be used to pay the doctors or to send the kids to college."

Jan Morris of Black Mountain, North Carolina, is one of those indebted to the craft guild. When her husband died in 1972, Morris still had two of her six children at home. Her handcraft hobby - the intricate, delicate art of making dolls out of corn husks - became a business that allowed her to make a living without leaving home.

Today, she demonstrates her craft at the guild's Folk Arts Center. The center attracts many overseas visitors, but Morris says language is rarely a problem; art, she observes, is something of a universal language.

"Someone may be standing there that speaks an absolute foreign language. But by our interaction, I know what they're asking me, and they know what I'm answering them. It is a miracle to me that we can communicate like we do, if we just make the effort."

The Appalachian Craft Guild is making its own effort to communicate. The organization recently made its extensive archives available to the public on the Internet. 

You can find it at www.craftguild.org.