Guest Faculty Member Teaching "Folk Arts" This Semester
This semester, Fairmont State University students have the unique opportunity to take classes toward a new Museum Studies minor from an accomplished guest faculty member.
Patricia Ruth Musick is teaching “Folk Arts,” part of the Museum Studies minor, now housed in the College of Liberal Arts Department of Social Science.
“The Museum Studies minor gives a strong base and experience for students who plan to pursue a career in museums. It also provides valuable added skills and experience applicable in many other fields,” Musick said. “Projects carried out in Museum Studies courses can be applied to a student’s resume. An understanding of the theoretical underpinnings in museum displays and interpretation contributes to analysis and critical thinking skills. It’s also a wonderful companion to any Liberal Arts major, specialty programs and to the Folklore Studies minor.”
"Folk Arts" (MUSM 2150) is a multifaceted class that includes hands-on studio projects, history and cultural comparison of various traditional arts, folk arts as material lore, insights into traditional artist/craftsmen’s mindset, continuity of the various cultural traditions that come together in West Virginia.
Dr. Marian Hollinger, Professor Emerita for the School of Fine Arts and long-time curator of the Brooks Gallery on campus, is teaching “Introduction to Museum Studies” this semester, which is a companion course to the “Folk Arts” course. Hollinger and Musick and their students are collaborating on an exhibit at the Folklife Center to focus on the celebration of Fairmont State’s 150th birthday this year.
“I hope to build on the foundation created in our traditional Folk Arts class--continuing to give students hands-on experience in the making of traditional arts that came to the central Appalachians from various indigenous and immigrant sources and flourished here, while encouraging awareness of folk arts’ significance and traditions on many levels. I hope to encourage students to cherish their heritage while spreading their wings,” Musick said.
A Colorado native, Patricia Ruth Musick is an artist, writer and educator. Her work encompasses illustration, calligraphy, teaching, research on early manuscripts, making murals of glass fused to metal and artist residencies in national parks.
Musick’s first artistic influences were her painter father, Archie, and ceramist mother, Irene. She is the niece of Dr. Ruth Ann Musick, the primary female folklore scholar to preserve and perpetuate the cultural heritage of West Virginia, mainly through the recording of supernatural legends. As artist-in-residence at Fairmont State in 1992, Musick created two enameled copper and steel murals illustrating West Virginia folklore collected by her aunt; the murals are on display in the Ruth Ann Musick Library. The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklore Center celebrates and perpetuates Ruth Ann Musick’s life work.
Patricia Musick was introduced to calligraphy at Reed College, where she earned a B.A. degree in 1973. She earned an M.Phil. in Design in 1980 from the Central School of Art and Design in London, researching calligraphy and letterforms in early Irish manuscripts. Since the 1980s, she has taught studio arts and art appreciation from high school to postgraduate levels. As a freelance artist, she carried out numerous commissions and has exhibited widely in the U.S. and in international calligraphy and enameling exhibitions. She has presented museum workshops and lectures in New Mexico and Colorado, collaborated on a research project supported by the Irish Heritage Council and published essays in environmental studies journals. Central concerns in her work and life are wild nature and cultural heritage.
“On a personal level, I hope to continue deepening my knowledge, travels, creative work and friendship with the Mountain State and its folklore, history, natural environment, people and spirit,” Musick said.
During her time on campus, she plans to complete the mural panels in the Gallery of Cultures, located on the second floor of the Folklife Center and to help generate materials to add to the information provided there.
“I'm honored to be able to collaborate with Dr. Judy Byers, Executive Director of the Folklife Center, in continuing to develop the Center, expanding its exhibits and programming and to help develop the Museum Studies program,” Musick said.
The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center, located on the shared main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College, is dedicated to the identification, preservation and perpetuation of our region’s rich cultural heritage, through academic studies, educational programs, festivals and performances and publications. For more information about the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center, visit www.fairmontstate.edu/folklife.
Folklife CenterPatricia Ruth MusickMuseum StudiesMarian Hollinger
