Ohio Arts Council helped fund artist-in-residence

Monroe county students get a lesson in Appalachian cultural history

WOODSFIELD -- Russ Childers, a folk artist from the Cincinnati area, will be teaching Monroe County elementary school students about folk music and square dancing as part of an artist-in-residence grant from the Ohio Arts Council.

Childers will focus on local Appalachian culture and history through storytelling as well as through music and dance.

According to the OAC, the artist in residence program "brings schools and community organizations together with artists to share in-depth, engaging, personal and sustained arts learning experiences." The grant application was a collaboration between the Ohio Arts Council, Monroe Arts Council and the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District. The school district received $4,800 from the Ohio Arts Council and plans to get an additional $4,290 from private donations to fund the $9,090 needed to pay for Childers' services.

According to ohiofolkarts.org, Childers' involvement with Appalachian old-time music in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky has won him numerous honors. He began playing songs that were part of his own Appalachian family tradition on guitar at age 13, taught by his aunt and uncle. He also plays banjo, fiddle, dulcimer and various homemade/recycled instruments. His storytelling includes traditional "Jack Tales" about traditions of the American South, tall tales and personal anecdotes.

For the Switzerland of Ohio Artist-in-Residence program, Childers plans to focus primarily on square dancing and "music played in the mountains."

"I will be teaching the children one or two new dances per day. They are traditional dances that were done in the Appalachian region, which we are very much a part of here," Childers said. "I will be teaching in a way that I will be incorporating live fiddle music, live banjo music, and I'll be sharing with them where the fiddle and banjo come from. … And I will bring a dulcimer in."

The children will participate primarily as dancers and will not be given instruction on how to play the instruments, although there will be opportunities for the students to sing during the instruction.

"There will be singing, and it is not even encouraged by me. What happens is when I teach the dances, there are singing calls," Childers said. "I'll sing the songs and the kids will start singing along with me as they learn it."

Childers will teach for one week at each of the five Switzerland of Ohio district elementary schools plus the private Catholic school St. Sylvester Elementary. He began his rotation at St. Sylvester last week. He will be working with students at Woodsfield Elementary School from Oct. 2-6, River Elementary from Oct. 16-20, Powhatan Elementary from Oct. 23-27, Beallsville Elementary from Oct. 30-Nov. 3, and will conclude with Skyvue Elementary from Nov. 6-10. A "culminating event" will bring together students from all six schools on Nov. 10. Exact details of the event have not yet been decided.

"This was a wonderful collaboration of people coming together for this, because the kids need it," said Diane Burkhart, grant writer for Switzerland of Ohio. "We've had some financial difficulties and some of the arts programs were eliminated, so this was our way of bringing some culture into our schools."

"The beautiful thing about it is I was here about nine years ago and they remembered me and invited me back," said Childers. "I am doing the same thing I did nine years ago, although I'm better at it now."