Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center

The museum studies students enrolled in Exhibition and Design are preparing for Dr. Carolyn Crislip-Tacy’s pottery exhibition in the Ruth Ann Musick Folk Gallery at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center. The grand opening of the exhibit is Thursday, March 28, and will begin with an artist presentation at 7 p.m. with a reception to follow. This event is free and open to the public.

Local author and educator, Amy Williams Wilson, will read from her book, The Bite, The Breast, and the Blood: Why Modern Vampire Stories Suck Us In at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2 at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the campus of Fairmont State University.  This event is free and open to the public.

Fairmont State University adjunct professor, Ilene Evans will portray educator and suffragist, Coralie Franklin Cook, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center. This event is free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, March 26, at 7 p.m. the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center will host a free, interactive historical performance of the renowned author and artist David Hunter Strother, who used the pen name Porte Crayon.

Writers are often told to “write what you know.”  Natalie Sypolt and Nancy Abrams, authors with ties to Preston County, have done just that, creating images of a sometimes idyllic, sometimes gritty, but always fascinating Appalachia. They will read from their new books at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on Tuesday, March 5 at 7 p.m.  This event is free and open to the public.

The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center will host four authors this semester – Jerald Pope, Natalie Sypolt, Nancy Abrams, and Amy Williams Wilson.  These presentations are free and open to the public. First in the series is Jerald Pope, known for his children’s picture books, Fetch and The Owl Girl. Pope will engage listeners in a discussion of his work on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Folklife Center. 

What happens to a town that loses its heart?This is the question filmmaker Rebecca Williams asked about Swannanoa, a small town in the mountains of North Carolina, once home to Beacon Blankets, the largest manufacturer of blankets in the world. The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center is excited to host a screening of the documentary film, “Blanket Town: The Rise and Fall of an American Mill Community”, followed by a conversation with filmmaker and documentarian, Rebecca William

The West Virginia Humanities Council has funded a continuation of the Diversity in Appalachia Lecture Series hosted by the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the campus of Fairmont State University.  “We are thrilled to have the continued support of the West Virginia Humanities Council,” noted Dr.

On Monday, November 26, at 7 p.m., The Frank and Jane WV Folklife Center will be hosting an old-time fiddling performance by Doug Van Gundy, a master-fiddler and an eighth-generation West Virginian, and Annie Stroud, his apprentice. The event is free and open to the public.

During the month of November, the Fairmont State University School of Fine Arts and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folk Life Center will be commemorating the 50^thanniversary of the 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster. This event had a devastating effect on Marion County and the surrounding area, but it also brought about changes in mine safety.