The major goals of FHAMC at the time of its inception and still appropriate today are to provide living history experiences and partner with like-minded groups to promote heritage through hands-on activities to:  EDUCATE: Increase understanding of past generations/history of where we come from; DEMONSTRATE:  Showcase everyday skills, crafts, and music of our ancestors; and PRESERVE:  Promote awareness of the need to preserve the folk heritage of Macon County.

FHAMC’s immediate goal was to develop a showcase for demonstrating the everyday skills, crafts, and music of our ancestors.  With wide community support, the first festival was launched in 2004, (later it was renamed the Franklin Area Folk Festival, “A Celebration of Appalachian Heritage”) and it was held in downtown Franklin on the grounds around the Burrell Building (now Town Hall) and other town areas, i.e., Gazebo, Rankin Square, etc.  From 2004 until 2012, the festival was organized and sponsored solely by FHAMC Board of Directors along with community volunteers. By 2013, it had grown bigger than the volunteer board and other festival helpers could manage, so FHAMC sought a partnership to continue.

 

FHAMC’s immediate goal was to develop a showcase for demonstrating the everyday skills, crafts, and music of our ancestors.  With wide community support, the first festival was launched in 2004, (later it was renamed the Franklin Area Folk Festival, “A Celebration of Appalachian Heritage”) and it was held in downtown Franklin on the grounds around the Burrell Building (now Town Hall) and other town areas, i.e., Gazebo, Rankin Square, etc.  From 2004 until 2012, the festival was organized and sponsored solely by FHAMC Board of Directors along with community volunteers. By 2013, it had grown bigger than the volunteer board and other festival helpers could manage, so FHAMC sought a partnership to continue.

In 2013 and 2014, FHAMC was fortunate to collaborate with the Franklin Main Street Program and the Town of Franklin to help co-sponsor this festival offering administrative and logistical help from Main Street Director Linda Schlott.  In order to continue receiving grant funding, FHAMC incorporated paid vendors to help offset costs for the event.  To align with their goals, the FHAMC board decided to set guidelines and only accept Appalachian focused/themed vendors.  And today, those guidelines are still in effect. FHAMC has stayed true to the heritage preservation component in that the Franklin Area Folk Festival is known as a demonstration’s festival first and foremost.

 

In early 2015, Franklin Main Street Program was re-organized and not able to continue offering administrative assistance or Town support as a festival partner. Typically, it takes the FHAMC Board of Directors and volunteers an entire year to plan the festival.  In order to continue the quality and scope of the existing festival and redirect their efforts, FHAMC decided to take a year off in 2015 to determine the next steps. In the meantime, an opportunity to meet their goal of providing heritage demonstrations presented itself later that year and they collaborated with Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center, another non-profit organization, to co-sponsor a Heritage Day at Cowee School.  This joint endeavor proved successful, and Cowee’s Board of Directors agreed to partner with FHAMC to continue the full-scale Franklin Area Folk Festival, “A Celebration of Appalachian Heritage” at the school which has continued from 2016 until 2023.

Some of the previous FHAMC Board Members that served for many years to promote heritage events included:  Shelby Bankston, Ronnie Beale, Cheryl Beck, Craig Berry, Tina Bottomley, Betty Ann Bryant, Charles Bryant, Susie Bryson, Betty Cabe, Joanne Clark, Barry Clinton, Harold Corbin, Kevin Corbin, Shane Corbin, Tex Corbin, Lonnie Crawford, Marilyn Crawford, Randy Dills, Caroline Edmonds, Henry & Judi Fichner, Kathy Flowers, Janet Jacobs Greene, Reed Henson, Martha Holbrook, Farrell Jamison, Susannah Kuppers, Charlie Leatherman, Cassie Mathis, Emma Mathis, Mary Alice McLaughlin, Barbara McRae, Bob Moore, Jane Morgan, Tommy Nicholson, Margaret Perry, Bob Poindexter, Ralph Preston, Margaret Ramsey, Shirley Ridge, Dee Ann Gibson Roles, Ron Schott, Jane Shatley, Evelyn Southard, Chuck Sutton, Jean Swafford, Wayne Swank, Sharon Taylor, Ben Utley, Sue Waldroop, Vince West, Larry White, Wayne Younce and representatives from the Scottish Tartans Museum and the Macon County Historical Museum.

Today’s FHAMC Board of Directors includes two original 2005 Charter Board Members, Theresa Ramsey and Mark West, along with Becky Barr, Keith Bowers, Gregg Clark, Jenny Collins, Matt Corbin, Claudette Dillard, Joey Gibson, Marty Greeble, Bethany McCall, Susan McCaskill, Kirk Mathis, Sherry Miller, Mia Overton, Mary Polanski, Claire Suminski, George Taylor and Chairperson Anne Hyder.  The Franklin Area Folk Festival’s other co-sponsor, Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center Board of Directors members, include Barry Clinton, Bob McCollum, Bobby Kuppers, Kelly Penland, Claire Suminski, George James, Susan Ervin, Lisa Browning, Teresa Falzone, Sharon Taylor, and Anne Hyder.  Also, Cowee School staff members Laura Brooks, Executive Director and Kathie Parris, Programs Administrator were instrumental in supporting this year’s festival.  For the last several years, Anne Hyder, Claire Suminski and Theresa Ramsey have served as the festival’s leadership team, but they decided to step down from this very labor-intensive role after this year’s festival, leaving a void yet to be filled.

Looking Forward

After much discussion, the FHAMC Board of Directors agreed that their efforts to remain more steadfastly focused on their goals to provide living history experiences and programs through hands-on demonstrations ultimately outweighed the demanding logistics and time involved in planning a large-scale event (i.e., a festival).  Consequently, this year’s 17th Annual Franklin Area Folk Festival, “A Celebration of Appalachian Heritage” held on August 19, 2023, will be the last one organized by co-sponsors FHAMC and Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center. 

For the remainder of this year, FHAMC will continue collaborating with like-minded groups, like Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center, for heritage events such as 4th Grade Heritage Day in November and Cowee Christmas in December.  As we look to the future, a committee has been formed to determine new heritage activities to consider implementing, i.e., NC state concepts like the flower, dog, tree, as well as other areas important to our region like gym mining, quilting, oral traditions, etc.  FHAMC plans to host/co-host these “mini” events throughout the year to focus on specific themes centered around heritage demonstrations and music (especially education elements), continue our sponsorship and involvement with the Women’s History Trail projects and connect with other similar organizations’ events to provide living history experiences and hands-on activities to promote our heritage.  By providing opportunities to demonstrate traditional skills from our past, it will help keep our heritage alive, especially if we pass these skills on to our children.

As FHAMC embraces opportunities to use their efforts for heritage preservation activities, this non-profit is also involved in heritage education. In 2016, they adopted the Women’s History Trail (WHT) “Walk in Her Steps” project, adesignated path in downtown Franklin identified by bronze plaques that share stories about women who helped shape Macon County’s history.  Also, in late 2018, WHT commissioned nationally renowned figurative sculptor Wesley Wofford to begin work on creating a 7-foot-high, 1,500-pound bronze sculpture grouping of three women and two children whose lives and cultures intersected in the early days of Macon County.  This monumental bronze sculpture, “Sowing the Seeds of the Future” symbolizes each group of women and their cultural contributions.  Although the sculpture itself has been funded through generous donors and fundraising efforts, the Folk Heritage Association of Macon County is still seeking donations to cover final site installation/landscaping costs to achieve a good, comfortable finish line for this important project.  A Groundbreaking Shovel Event was held at the site on October 27, 2023 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the WHT Trail Opening and to kick off the start of site renovations for the sculpture installation.  A Women’s History Trail Community Sculpture Celebration is planned for March 23, 2024. 

For more information call (828) 369-4080.