The Cowan Community Action Group, Inc. has been notified that it is among the top 50 semi-finalists in the 2009 Coming Up Taller Awards by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and its partner agencies, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The message read:  “We reviewed more than 420 nominations from 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Osan South Korean US Air Force Base.  Your program’s selection as one of the 50 semi-finalists distinguishes it as one of the top arts-and humanities-based programs in the country serving youth beyond the school hours.” 

The nomination is currently being rewiewed for a Coming Up Taller award by a national jury composed of field experts.  Recipients will be notified by the end of June.  If selected, Cowan will receive a plaque and a $10,000 award at a ceremony in the fall/winter.  Cowan will also have the opportunity to participate in the sixth annual Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement Conference, August 5-7, 2009, in Washington, DC.  The program and organization will be listed in this year’s Coming Up Taller awards national publication and in the press kit announcing the award recipients.

Cowan is very proud of this distinction, and recognizes it as an accomplishment to be shared by its stakeholders, Cowan Community Center Staff both past and present, the Cowan Creek Mountain Music Faculty and its many students throughout  the years, other organizations that have so closely worked with us as partners, such as Appalshop and the Cowan Elementary School,  and the many people of the area who believe as we do that our traditional mountain music and folk arts must be preserved and passed on to future generations.  

The Art Stamper Scholarship for Fiddle Students is awarded to a fiddle student based on commitment, excellence, and accomplishment.  

                                                                                                                         2008 Recipient:  Joseph Collum, age 8, Shelby County.

The Burt Hatfield Scholarship for Banjo and/or Guitar Students is awarded to a guitar or banjo student based on commitment, excellence, and accomplishment.  Open to students  at any level.                                                                                                                                                             2008 Recipient:  Chandler Sparkman, 12 years old, Letcher County

The Ray Slone Teaching Assistantship for Fiddle or Banjo Students is awarded to a fiddle or banjo student based on excellence and accomplishment. The student should show maturity, promise, and demonstrate an ability and interest in teaching.  

2008 Recipient: Rossi Clark, age 14, Pulaski County            

     The Rodney Sanders Scholarship is awarded to a student based on a sincere commitment and interest in learning any area of traditional Kentucky music.  This is both a merit and need based scholarship and is open to students of all ages, with an emphasis on youth and senior citizens.

2008 Recipient: Justin Grimm, age 17, Banjo player,           Perry County

The Cowan Community Center has enjoyed the great honor of having been nominated for and receiving the Governor’s 2007-2008 Folk Heritage Award for their role in preserving and promoting Kentucky’s traditional arts.  Many thanks to our previous Arts Coordinator, Susanne Savell, for the honor she bestowed upon the center by nominating us. 

There are nine awards presented each year in the arts, and all of the nine recipients were honored at a special event in Frankfort’s Capital Rotunda in October. Following the public event, the recipients and their invited guests were honored at a luncheon in the Governor’s Mansion.  All of the day’s activities were taped and later shown on a KET special presentation.  In February, all of the recipients will again be honored by receiving a citation from the Kentucky Legislature.  Being a recipient of such a prestigious award has given us a great recognition throughout Kentucky, and it affirms our belief that we are doing the right things with our mountain traditions.   It has strengthened our belief that our music, dance, storytelling, quilting, and all of the activities we participate in have worth, and that persons from out of our region respect and value our work also.  It has certainly been something we have used with pride when submitting grant proposals and applications for future funding.  Again, thanks to Susanne Savell, for believing in the center enough to take the time and effort to nominate us.  The events can be viewed on the following web links.  http://artscouncil.ky.gov/07govaward/index.htm

The Governor’s remarks  Video can be found on this page:

http://artscouncil.ky.gov/07govaward/letter.htm

Carol Ison, Director

Cowan Community Center

The Cowan Community Center has been awarded an Appalachian Regional Commission Flex-E Grant through a partnership with the Brushy Fork Institute of Berea, KY, the Appalachian Early Childhood Center, and the Cowan Community Center Head Start.   The grant in the amount of $10,000 will enable the Cowan Community Center to expand its program of teaching and promoting traditional arts into early childhood programs. 

The Appalachian Early Childhood Center, located in Whitesburg, KY has a core program designed around promoting and preserving traditions common to the children who attend the center, but they did not have a component that stressed music or any of the other arts.  The Cowan Head Start Center, located in the Cowan Community Center, was also not doing anything in the area of promoting, teaching, and preserving traditional arts.  Through this partnership, children  from both centers will be brought  one morning each week into the Great Room of the Cowan Center, where they will be engaged in either a music, dance, storytelling, or other form of traditional art activity.   The presenters for these morning sessions will be members of the fine faculty of the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School.   Currently, the program has been stalled by the closing of schools due to weather, but the staff informs us that their children  have been anxiously looking forward to beginning the program.  We will keep you posted on the outcome of this venture.  Many thanks to the Brushy Fork Institute and the Appalachian Regional Commission for funding.  Also, thanks to John Haywood, one of the instructors, for his work in helping design the first activity and allowing us to pilot it on his very own pre-school children.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this year one of the best Cowan Creek Mountain Music Schools ever! We have been building this school, and the extended family that belongs to it, for seven years now. From all the staff, faculty and volunteers of CCMMS, we want to extend a big thank you to all the wonderful students who joined us this year. We also want to thank all the local folks who came out in numbers to join in the square dances and attend the many performances throughout the week.

• In addition to the array of musicians performing and teaching at the music school this year, Cowan Community Action Group was proud to present storyteller Angelyn DeBord and women from the Cowan Creek Community in the It’s About Time project.  It’s About Time was sponsored by the Kentucky Arts Council’s Art Builds Community and the Kentucky Foundation for Women.  The performance by these women is the culmination of a year long project in which women in the Cowan community were provided with regularly scheduled workshops of poetry writing, story sharing and visual art. These workshops were  documented for posterity!  This project culminated in the involvement of these local women in the staged performance that we all so enjoyed.  The play was based on the stories from these womens’ lives, scripted and directed by Angelyn DeBord.   Kentucky artists Mimi Pickering, Anne Shelby and Pam Meade were all involved in the creation of this project.  The National Performance Network provided funds for Angelyn DeBord and Nancy Brennan Strange to conduct a week-long residency with the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School and to present DeBord’s original play,  ”Stubborn Memories,” as part of the faculty concert. 

Several folks have been asking about the wonderful photographs that Kelly Christian took during the music school. As soon as we get the files, we will create an online album and email everyone with the link (and also notify you here!). It may seem like a long way off, but make sure to save the week for next year: June 22-26, 2008! More news to come as we make plans for more music between now and then!  All the best,Suzanne 

We are happy to announce that the previously out-of-print CCMMS 2001 Faculty Concert CD, the first music school concert featuring Art Stamper, Dirk Powell & Chritine Balfa, Lee Sexton, Jesse Wells and many of your favorite CCMMS faculty, is now available for digital download through JuneAppal Records! As with all CCMMS CDs, the proceeds from these digital sales will go to support CCMMS Youth Scholarships!  Tell your family & friends, and click here to check it out: JuneAppal website.

Youth from Letcher County & across the state performed for the Kentucky State Legislature on Tuesday, February 5th.  They opened the House’s legislatuve session by performing “Angelina Baker” and “Fly Around My Pretty Lil’ Miss.”  Several Representatives got up and danced, and the young musicians were given a standing ovation and presented with certificates.  Below are photos of the group performing and of the Letcher County Pick & Bow students with their certificates.  WMMT-FM ran a story about the trip, which can be listened to on-line: http://www.appalshop.org/ccc/?p=88