2023 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows Announced

Congratulations to the 2023 Appalachian
Foodways Practitioner Fellows!

Baltimore, MD – April 5, 2023 – Mid Atlantic Arts Central Appalachia Living Traditions Program, in partnership with Grow Appalachia and the Appalachian Studies Association, is thrilled to announce the 2023 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows. The Fellowships are intended to honor, celebrate, and support foodways tradition bearers and practitioners in Central Appalachia who have made significant and long-term contributions to sustaining and supporting the foodways heritage of their respective communities. 

Fellows may include, but are not limited to home cooks and bakers, seed savers, farmers, community elders, keepers of recipes and traditional foodways knowledge, hunters, and foragers, who have made significant and long-term contributions to sustaining and supporting the foodways heritage of their respective communities. 

Fellows must be from an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) designated county and state and priority was given to applicants from Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

The 2023 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows are: 

Femeika Elliott is shot from the chest up. She sits in a chair in front of white walls and a brick corner piece. She wears a black shirt and a gold necklace and earrings. She wears dreads in a bun and turquoise framed glasses.

Display caption

Image: Femeika Elliott. Credit: Courtesy of Femeika Elliott.

Sergio Herrera is shot from the waist up in front of a brick building with a glass door. He holds a white plate containing traditional Chilean food. He wears a bright yellow Tshirt has a dark short beard and wears glasses.

Display caption

Image: Sergio Herrera. Credit: Courtesy of Sergio Herrera.

Jason Tartt is sitting outside with his elbows resting on his knees. He wears jeans a black shirt gold necklace and burgundy bandanna on his head. He has a short dark bread. Behind him a yellow building can be seen.

Display caption

Image: Jason Tartt. Credit: Courtesy of Jason Tartt.

Learn more about the 2023 Fellows here. 

The 2023 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows were honored at an awards ceremony and invited to present at a session at the 2023 Appalachian Studies Association Annual Conference in Athens, Ohio. In addition to the monetary award of $4,000 to support their ongoing community-based work, fellows received a unique physical award created by Berea College Student Craft. 

The Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellowships are part of the Recognizing Folk Arts and Culture Champions component of Central Appalachia Living Traditions (CALT) – a multi-year program designed to promote the understanding, and recognition of folk arts and culture in Central Appalachia through a three-part program that invests in folk arts communities while seeding new folk and traditional arts experiences and honoring underrecognized practitioners of Central Appalachian traditions across the region. 

Learn more about the program here.

About Mid Atlantic Arts
Mid Atlantic Arts nurtures and funds the creation and presentation of diverse artistic expression and connects people to meaningful arts experiences within our region and beyond. Created in 1979, Mid Atlantic Arts is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region’s state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional, national, and international perspective. To learn more about Mid Atlantic Arts, its programs and services, visit our website at www.midatlanticarts.org.

Logo mark is a circle with yellow, blue, and plum geometric sections designed to look like stylized mountains. To the left are the word Central Appalachia Living Traditions in plum colored type.

Contact:
Karen Newell
Director, External Affairs
Mid Atlantic Arts 
karen@midatlanticarts.org
410.539.6656 x104