For the first time in its history, the Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Foundation for the Humanities will partner with Ash Lawn-Highland, the historic home of James Monroe, to present the annual Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcase. Now in its thirteenth year, the showcase is a free, family-friendly event that highlights the Commonwealth’s folk masters and apprentices from the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. The event celebrates the traditional music, crafts, and foodways of Virginia, introducing the public to the master artists and apprentices who keep the traditions alive. This year an expected audience of more than 500 people will enjoy more than ten live musical performances and a dazzling display of engaging demonstrations—from bluegrass to oyster shucking—at Ash Lawn-Highland.

Past Apprenticeship Showcases have featured masters of a diverse array of traditional arts and skills from across Virginia, from decoy carving of the Eastern Shore to cornshuck doll making from the Virginia coalfields. Musical performances have demonstrated the remarkable breadth of music styles and traditions, including bluegrass, Piedmont blues, gospel, and old time stringband, as well as musical traditions newer to Virginia, from immigrant communities across the world. Traditional foodways presented have included country ham curing, Mexican molé making, canning, fried pie making, and the traditional methods for rendering maple syrup and honey. And each year audience members are treated to genuine Brunswick Stew and Northern Neck oysters, shucked by national champion shuckers Deborah Pratt and Clementine Macon of the Northern Neck.