1943 Alumna Endows Folk Arts Education Program

Sometimes events in our childhood can profoundly affect who we are and what we believe. Hindman High School alumna Marcia Smith Lawrence was born in a house across the road from Hindman Settlement School and raised in Hindman where she was continually exposed to the Settlement’s folk arts programs. Those circumstances led to her lifelong interest in Appalachia’s cultural heritage.

 

This summer Lawrence, who has served on the Settlement School’s board of directors since 2004, decided to help preserve this heritage by establishing the Marcia Smith Lawrence Folk Arts Education Fund at Hindman Settlement School. The $500,000 endowment will support Folk Arts Education outreach programs at the Settlement School.

 

Lawrence was among several generations of students from the area who grew up attending folk dances and musical events hosted on Hindman Settlement’s campus. Many Hindman students learned traditional crafts such as weaving and woodworking, or folk arts like dulcimer playing and ballad singing, at the School.

 

In 1942, when Knott County public schools took over teaching academic subjects, the Settlement School agreed to provide teachers for manual training, domestic science, art, music and recreation. The School continued to provide extension programs in arts and recreation in cooperation with Knott County public schools until 1990 when the program was taken over by the public schools.

 

In 2006, with the help of her friends, Lawrence donated and raised the funds necessary to reinstate the Folk Arts Education Program. Her goal was to ensure Knott County schools have the resources to teach culturally relevant arts and music. A two-year grant from The Steele-Reese Foundation has allowed the program to continue through 2009. It has been Lawrence’s goal to establish an endowment to support this work in perpetuity.

 

While the Settlement will need to raise additional funds to fully cover salary and associated expenses for the program, this gift ensures that the efforts of the Settlement School’s founders to keep area students mindful of their heritage will continue for many years to come.