Monthly Archives: February 2009

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.