Ozark Folk Center
Ozark music is heard throughout the Folk Center grounds.
Dedicated to the perpetuation and interpretation of Ozark Mountain heritage, the Ozark Folk Center is one of America's cultural treasures. Here, musicians perform traditional acoustic tunes, gifted artisans create heirloom-quality works, and craftsmen demonstrate pioneer skills. Is your life connected to the ways of the past? Yes, and at the Ozark Folk Center, you'll see, hear, and understand how.
(click for map)
The focal point of the Folk Center is the crafts village, where 24 traditional Ozark crafts are made by talented artisans. Music is the other main component of the Folk Center. Ozark music pervades every corner, and performances take place in the crafts village throughout each day. At night, the music theater attracts amateur and professional musicians from miles around to sing, play and dance in the old, informal tradition of friends and neighbors gathering in the evening.
The Folk Center's Ozark Cultural Resource Center (OCRC), is a one-of-a-kind archive and research facility, housing nearly 60,000 Ozark documents, recordings, and sets of sheet music. The OCRC contains the largest collection of Ozark music in the world, including recordings of each performance on the Folk Center stage over the center's quarter-century history. Plus, through the OCRC's oral history program, staff members have collected audio and video recordings of many of the Ozark's famous and talented artists and musicians. Although those musicians are no longer with us, through these tapes, their music legacies remain alive.
Building upon the skills of the Ozark people and the information within the OCRC, the Ozark Folk Center continues its mission of perpetuation of Ozark traditions. The Folk Center conducts an active apprentice program, offers workshops throughout its operating season, holds over a dozen Elderhostel programs each year, and hosts an annual Ozark Folk School. The folk school, quickly gaining national attention, is held each spring. Intensive workshops in Ozark song, dance, and crafts are led by the nation's top-rated Ozark artisans and musicians. Workshops include: mountain dulcimer, fiddle, claw-hammer banjo, southern mountain singing, photography, several workshops on herbs cooking and gardening, and 25 different craft courses.
These Ozark Folk Center workshops provide experiences you will remember for a lifetime. Many participants choose to stay on-site throughout their coursework, enjoying Southern hospitality at the Folk Center's Dry Creek Lodge and Skillet Restaurant.
To find out more about the park's music programs, craft village, lodging, educational workshops, research facility, events, children's activities, Elderhostel programs, and other offerings, visit: www.OzarkFolkCenter.com.
