Virginia Heritage Award Winners

2009 Virginia Heritage Award Winners

The Virginia Heritage Awards are being presented for the first time in 2009 to honor Virginia masters of the traditional arts for their contributions to the cultural heritage of Virginia, to recognize the preservationists of traditional culture, and to bring public attention to important cultural traditions.

Masters of traditional art forms exhibit a longstanding dedication to that art form, a high quality of skill within the genre, recognition of a master status by their communities, and a role in sharing their skills with others within the community.

Traditional communities, or folk groups, are defined by a combination of factors such as race, ethnicity, history, beliefs, geography, occupation, or gender.

A traditional art form is an element of expressive culture within a community. The traditional arts are passed on by informal observation and practice outside of institutional instruction. Of course, in modern society it would be extremely rare for a traditional artist's work to be completely uninfluenced by the mass media or the fine arts. However, a traditional art form primarily reflects the longstanding informal common knowledge and aesthetics of the artist's community. Some traditional arts are by nature performance oriented, such as storytelling or ballad singing. Others are defined by the creation of material culture items, such as boat-building or doll-making.

Grayson Chesser (Click Here to Learn More)

Evangelist Maggie Ingram (Click Here to Learn More)

Joyce Pale Moon Krigsvold (Click Here to Learn More)

Reverend Frank Newsome (Click Here to Learn More)

Roy Odell “Speedy” Tolliver (Click Here to Learn More)

Bobby Patterson (Click Here to Learn More)