Articles
	Vision for the Arts
	Arts and Humanities Month
	On the National Front
	Jean Ritchie Honored
	START News Update
	Poet Laureate Nominations
	Craft Marketing Jury Results
	Arts in Education
	911 Remembered
	Kentucky On stage
	On Center at Centre
	Art Behind Bars
	Kentucky Visions Tours
	Accessibility Services
	NASAA Convenes
	Focus on Folklife
	Message from the Director
	Quotable Quote
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The BlueMoon is published bi-monthly by the Kentucky Arts Council. Please send comments, questions and information to The Blue Moon, Kentucky Arts Council, Old Capitol Annex, 300 West Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601-1980 or call 502/564-3757V/TDD Toll Free: 1-888-833-2787
E-mail: kyarts@mail.state.ky.us

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced the 2002 recipients of the National Heritage Fellowships, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Thirteen fellowships, which include a one-time award of $10,000 each. Awardees were chosen for their artistic excellence, authenticity and contributions to their field. Jean Ritchie was selected to receive the Bess Lomax Hawes award for service to the folk and traditional arts field as a whole.

Jean Ritchie is a significant musician and songwriter, as well as a cultural activist and chronicler of her home region. She was born into a singing family in Viper, Kentucky. The youngest of 14 children, she studied at the University of Kentucky where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in social work. Her first job was with the Henry Street Settlement on New York’s Lower East Side, where she taught Kentucky songs, ballads and singing games to children. During this time, Alan Lomax encountered her, recorded her songs and lap dulcimer playing for the Library of Congress, and arranged her first formal concert at Columbia University. By 1952, she was traveling on a Fulbright Fellowship to trace and document the roots of her heritage in the British Isles. Her many recordings and appearances at major folk festivals, including the early Newport Folk Festivals, cultivated a revival of interest in Appalachian music and culture. She also became known as an insightful songwriter. Though Ritchie lives in Port Washington, New York, she regularly returns to Kentucky and has often graced the stage of the Kentucky Folklife Festival. By sharing her music as well as her commitment to her Appalachian home with audiences around around the world, Jean Ritchie has come to define and embody the dual concepts of ambassador and steward of tradition.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in September. For a full list of this year’s recipients, visit the National Endowment for the Arts on the Web.

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