There is only one fast food place in the whole county; there are no movie theaters, no shopping malls, and not a single Big Box store.

What there is (against a backdrop of some of the most beautiful terrain in Western North Carolina) is a community where the arts—all of them—are richly interwoven in the fabric of daily life.

Long before iPods or even Walkmans, the hills of Madison County were alive with music. You could find (and still do) pickers and singers at a barn dance or on many a front porch. The Bascom Lamar Lunsford festival on the Mars Hill College campus, still going strong after 38 years, attests to the power of music in the lives of area residents. (For some relevant local color, see the profile on page 14 of Flonnie Lunsford Mundy.)

Handcrafts, such as wood working, pottery and quilting were, and still are, not only ways to satisfy practical daily needs, but the means to create beauty and express one's individuality.

Recently we talked with Anne Rawson, Executive Director of The Madison County Arts Council, along with Susan Sewell and Melanie Kraft, committee chairs for the upcoming Madison Celebrates Art Festival. Anne tells us, "The Arts Council has a mission to celebrate the arts, to get people involved in the arts and to help promote local artists." She adds: "I was raised in Asheville, lived in California for a while and when I came back to the area, decided to live in Madison County. It was wonderful coming here and seeing this rich heritage of art. But for a lot of people, the word "Art" has quotes around it...and we've really enjoyed getting rid of that barrier!



"One of the reasons we started the Madison Celebrates Art Festival was to promote all levels of art. And because we are one of the few umbrella arts organizations, we promote all kinds of art: dancers, singers, theater, photography, writers.

The Council also wants to make the arts a viable economic tool; they've teamed with Handmade in America, the Agriculture Extension office, Mars Hill College and the Hot Springs Medical Clinic to access funds for this from the Duke Endowment.
"Among the many things we're doing is working with members of the Farmers' Market to create saleable products."


The Arts Council, now housed in a beautiful brick former church building in downtown Marshall, wants to create a rich mixture of offerings. The current show is a display of photographs by local resident Rob Amberg (his recent book Sodom Laurel Album contains stories, photos and songs celebrating a local family and their community; the photos on display are additional reflections of life as it was lived in Madison County over the past couple of decades.



In keeping with the goal of recognizing and integrating the arts and crafts that have sustained this community, the council decided to document the quilts of Madison County. "We hired Rob Amberg to teach a workshop on how to do this...the ethics and realities of it. We offered several people the chance to come to the workshop in exchange for 10 hours to display these "quilts"; and to create even more community involvement, they've asked local politicians to help paint the patterns. (We hope to follow up on these projects in future issues.)