Skip to main content

WCU Stories

Mountain Heritage Center to present ‘mini’ Mountain Heritage Day-style event

The Mountain Heritage Center, a museum of Appalachian culture at Western Carolina University, will hold a crafts demonstration and music performance on campus Wednesday, July 20. 

The 1-3 p.m. event will be held on the lawn between the Forsyth and Killian Annex buildings, in the style of Mountain Heritage Day, the university’s popular fall community festival to be held this year on Saturday, Sept. 24. And like Mountain Heritage Day, it is free and open to the public. 

Among the scheduled performers are traditional musician Sarah Elizabeth Burkey. Crafters include Ramona Lossie with Cherokee river cane basketry and Cassie Dickson with flax culture and weaving, with corn shuck toys and art. Demonstrators will be Mattie Davenport with weaving, Windy Gordon with Scottish tartans and discussing historical influences, and Richard Tichich showing quilting and old-time sewing machines.  

Members of Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro will demonstrate quilt making while Mountain Heritage Center staff will show Western Carolina College’s old beanies and lead participants in making corn shuck dolls.

The Mountain Heritage Center also will be open, with its exhibit “Quilts: The Stories They Tell” on display, including 21 quilts from the collection featuring Album, Crazy, and Patchwork quilt styles. Stories of quilters from Jackson, Macon and Haywood counties, families and community members as well as patterns, techniques and materials, and the perceptions of quilts are all showcased.

View old favorites as well as new acquisitions and quilts that have never been on exhibit before. The center is located in the Hunter Library building and the exhibit is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday until  Aug. 26.

The event is sponsored by the Mountain Heritage Center, the Office of Mentoring and Persistence to Success, and Hunter Library. For more information, contact the Mountain Heritage Center at 828-227-7129. 

Office of Web Services