The oldest classroom had no walls. It was a forge, a loom, a garden, a kitchen table. The teacher was a grandparent, a neighbor, or an elder in the community. The lesson was not scheduled; it unfolded through doing, watching, and trying again.

Intergenerational learning is not a modern concept. Stories, skills, and knowledge survived for centuries by being passed down from one generation to the next.

When we stop learning from each other, we lose the stories, the community, and the living texture of a tradition that no tutorial can replicate.

What Is Intergenerational Learning?

Intergenerational learning happens when people of different ages come together to share skills, stories, and ways of seeing the world. It can look like a grandparent and grandchild working side by side, or an older teen becoming a role model for a younger child. Young people gain confidence and real-world knowledge. Older participants rediscover their craft through fresh eyes.

The John C. Campbell Folk School has been living this philosophy for over 100 years. From Appalachian music traditions to woodcarving and weaving, the school has always believed that the best way to keep a tradition alive is to pass it on.

Intergenerational Week

Some of the most meaningful learning happens when families slow down and do something together. Intergenerational Week is a dedicated week-long program that builds community and mentor relationships through shared activities. 

Here’s what the program looks like in practice:

• Who can attend: The program is open to youth ages 12 to 17 attending alongside a parent, grandparent, or guardian.
• How registration works: Each adult and youth pair registers for the same class and works through it together.
• What you’ll learn: Classes span a wide range of crafts, from leatherwork and weaving to music and woodcarving.
• Instructor support: Guidance and support from experienced instructors shape every session.

Classes fill quickly, and for good reason. According to Generations United, 92% of Americans believe intergenerational activities can help reduce loneliness across all ages. A shared project at a workbench is a simple way to start.

Browse currently available Intergenerational Week classes and sign up to secure your spot.

Little Middle Folk School

Intergenerational learning also happens among peers, where older kids naturally guide and impact younger ones. Research shows that elementary and middle school students paired with older teen mentors demonstrate greater connectedness to friends, parents, and school, as well as improvements in self-esteem and peer acceptance. 

Every summer, Little Middle Folk School welcomes children and teens ages 7 to 17 for a week of hands-on learning in Appalachian craft and culture. Students are grouped into Littles (rising 2nd through 6th graders) and Middles (rising 7th through 12th graders), with classes spanning a wide range of crafts and activities:

• Woodcarving
• Basket weaving
• Ceramics
• Fiber arts
• Gourd fairy houses
• Folk dance
• Singing
• Nature exploration

Experienced instructors bring decades of craft knowledge to every session, and older students naturally step into informal leadership roles alongside younger ones. This dynamic creates opportunities for youth mentorship, where skills and confidence grow through shared learning and guidance.

Limited scholarships are available for Cherokee and Clay County residents. Learn more and register for Little Middle.

The Bigger Picture

When people of different ages create something together, the benefits travel in both directions. Research on arts-based intergenerational learning finds that collaborative programs help older participants recognize the real value of their wisdom and experience, while giving younger people a platform for skill-sharing and mutual respect.

Apprenticeship programs and intergenerational learning rooted in traditional craft have always been one of the most reliable ways to keep a culture alive. By passing down techniques, stories, and values through hands-on practice, these systems preserve not just the craft itself but the identity and history tied to it.

An Open Invitation

Learning alongside someone from a different generation is one of the most rewarding experiences a person can have. Whether it’s a grandparent and grandchild learning a new skill together, or a confident teenager showing a younger child the ropes, those moments become the foundation for connection and confidence.

The Folk School has built two thoughtful programs to make exactly those moments possible. If you are looking for a way to connect with family, learn something new with your hands, and be part of a tradition that matters, the door is open.

Explore Intergenerational Week and Little Middle Folk School and find the experience that’s right for your family.

About the Folk School

Casandra Cutter will be visiting the Folk School this summer to delve into the world of handmade brooms and brushes. Trained as a traditional broommaker, Casandra puts her own spin on things and is excited to share her methods in her class “Found Object Brooms & Brushes” from July 5-11, 2026. Read more about Casandra and her upcoming class in our interview below! Interested in signing up? Register today to secure your spot.

Upcoming Class with Casandra

About Casandra Cutter

This post draws significantly from the 2025 Community Room display about June Coolidge Cary, which was researched and written by work-study student Frankie Lo.

The Craft Shop and Olive’s Porch are excited to have a new offering celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Folk School! These prints of Folk School buildings were made by book artist and printmaker Jessica C. White using the original blocks created by June Coolidge Cary (1912-1996). Cary’s work featured prominently in the Folk School’s early marketing materials, from newsletters to craft catalogs to Christmas cards to the logos printed on official correspondence.

Ruth Alden Coolidge Cary, who went by the name “June,” grew up in Medford, Massachusetts. She studied art at multiple institutions and received a Fine Arts degree at Tufts University in 1935. A niece of Olive Dame Campbell, she also spent time at the Folk School. She spent the summer of 1928 in Brasstown, making sketches of people from the community. June married in 1936 and spent two years in Japan with her husband, Harry M. Cary. The couple moved to Brasstown in the late 1930s and remained here until World War Two. June worked as a designer for the Folk School and also taught craft courses. Harry worked as a publicity and extension agent for the school. They welcomed their first son into the family during their time in Brasstown and had their second son in 1942.

June’s prints are important for their representations of the early Folk School. She created printing blocks depicting many of the first buildings on campus, such as Farm House, Keith House, the Log Cabin Museum, and Mill House. Her prints were used in the school’s newsletters to illustrate daily activities here, like agricultural and domestic labor as well as singing and dancing. Other, holiday-themed prints were used on Christmas cards made by the school.

Additionally, June designed items for craft production. Her sketches of furniture, ironwork, and woodcarvings can be matched with actual objects in the collections of her family and of the Folk School’s Fain Archives. Other sketches may have been used to illustrate items in Craft Shop catalogs. June’s detailed drawings brought her designs to life in ways that could be reproduced by craftspeople and inspire others to buy their work.

Nesting tables designed by June Coolidge Cary. The set on the left is owned by her descendants.

(left) June Coolidge Cary’s sketches of carved wood trivets.

(right) Dogwood trivet carved by Hobart Anderson.

The legacy of June’s work at the Folk School lives on. Her 1928 sketches and later printing blocks are in the Folk School’s Fain Archives, along with some of her drawings of craft designs. Other materials by June can be found at the Massachusetts Historical Society, and additional sketches attributed to her are in a folder labeled “Purse Patterns” in the John C. Campbell Folk School Records at UNC-Chapel Hill. We are excited to present three of June’s designs for sale in honor of the Folk School’s centennial!

The Craft Shop is now offering three prints: Mill House, Farm House, and Keith House.

Reprinted by Jessica White of Over Yonder Press from the original blocks by June Coolidge Cary. Call 828-837-2775 to order.

Top image: The completed Woodworking Studio, December 1946.

This is Part V of a series of posts by Rooney Floyd about Quakers who have contributed to the Folk School. Catch up on the rest of the stories: Part I Part II Part III Part IV

Part V: Aunt Margaret

In 2019, I received information from a niece and nephew about their aunt who had attended an American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) summer workcamp at the John C. Campbell Folk School in 1946. They had just read the three-part post “Working Under the Star” on the Folk School website that described the workcamp. The new information they provided was added to the post as Part IV: Aunt Cophine. Primarily it provided a keen insight into the character of the individual campers. All previously available material was project-focused, with little personal insight. The update was a valuable addition to the post and well received.

Time and COVID passed…in the fall of 2025, Lin Riffle of Columbus, Ohio, found papers and photographs that her aunt Margaret Hollingsworth had left about her summer in the 1945 AFSC workcamp at the Folk School. Lin then contacted the School to offer the material, and it was readily accepted by the archives. Lin and her husband brought the package down to the school and attended Fall Festival in October 2025. The material was just what we hoped for – about the personality and character of the individual campers through letters and many photographs. So, here we go again…the best way to document the new additions was decided to be Part V: Aunt Margaret.

Margaret Hollingsworth applied for the Brasstown AFSC workcamp in May 1945 and had an encouraging phone conversation with Louise Pitman, who was head of the Craft Department at the Folk School. Margaret left by bus on July 3, 1945, and arrived 29 hours later on July 4. The fare was $11.00 one way. The AFSC chaperone picked her up at the bus station in Murphy and brought her to the Folk School, where she met Olive Dame Campbell at a reception. The eight participating girls were housed on the second floor of Rock House.  Their eight-week workcamp ran through August 20.

1945 AFSC workcamp staff and participants

(back row) Eleanor Frey, Sue Harwig, Toni Johnson, Maylon Hepp, Margaret Hollingsworth

(front row) Ann Hepp, Barbara Hepp, Hildegard Koch, Betsy Olson, Bunny Wight, Hannah Kenmore

Mrs. Campbell had requested AFSC assistance because the Folk School’s woodworking shop had burned in December 1944. The building was a total loss, and in the depressed wartimes she did not have the funds to hire enough labor to rebuild. The first phase was cleanup from the fire and laying out foundations for the new shop, which was built of stone and larger than the old one. In a letter, one of the campers remarked that this was what was happening all over Europe to clean up and rebuild after the war.

Cement was mixed on site and placed using wheelbarrows.

Work progressed well under the direction of the Folk School staff. One camper required attention when she stepped on a nail and was taken to Murphy for a tetanus shot. Another girl came down with mumps, requiring isolation for two weeks. She recovered, and no one else was affected. The AFSC chaperone couple is pictured to the right, with Maylon Hepp receiving a haircut from Ann Hepp, his wife, while reading Life Magazine in the yard of Rock House.

(below left) AFSC workcampers enjoyed eating outdoors on the grass between Little Rock and Rock House.

(below right) This picture best illustrates the saying “happy camper”!

The outer walls, frame, and floor of the studio were completed by camp’s end, and an informal dedication was held by staff and campers.  The staff reviewed the progress and how everything was all set for another workcamp to finish the building the next year, in 1946. The 1945 workcamp had produced a substantial monument to their efforts. The camp closed with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.”

Margaret brought home this cherished walnut goose as an example of the Folk School’s commercial production.  It was carved by Glenn Brown, one of the Brasstown Carvers. Margaret also had kept her version of a goose that she carved from a walnut blank she obtained at the school.

Margaret never married. After her time in AFSC, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University. Margaret painted, made charcoal sketches, and had a ceramic business. She passed away in July 2006 at the age of 80. Margaret left her collection of material from the 1945 workcamp in her home, where Lin Riffle now lives.

Read Previous Quaker Women Blog Posts:

Bethany E. Chaney
Executive Director

P.S. Every gift makes a difference. To contribute, please visit folkschool.org/giving.  

Appalachian music has never stood still. From the earliest gatherings on front porches to today’s festival stages, this tradition has always been a conversation between past and present. Each generation adds its own voice while carrying forward the rhythms and stories that came before.

The question isn’t whether the music should change. It’s how we keep it alive while honoring its origins. That balance is what makes Appalachian culture so vital today.

Roots: What Makes Appalachian Music “Appalachian”

Mountain music formed from multiple sources flowing together like streams into a river. What we recognize as Appalachian sound today came from diverse groups of people making music together in these mountains.

European immigrants (including Scots-Irish, English, Germans, French Huguenots, and later Eastern Europeans) settled in Appalachia over several centuries, from the colonial period through the early 20th century. African Americans made up about 12% of the population in the early twentieth century, and the Cherokee people were in the region for thousands of years before any of them. These communities lived and worked side by side, and their musical styles naturally began to mix over time.

The Appalachian music tradition rests upon several foundations:

• British ballads and hymns traveled to the mountains and gradually changed shape in the New World.
• African American musicians introduced key elements, including banjo traditions rooted in West African instruments, blues styles, slide techniques, and rhythmic patterns that later influenced bluegrass.
• The mountain dulcimer descended from the German scheitholt and was brought to Appalachia by European settlers.
• Cherokee musicians contributed long-standing musical traditions to the region, including river cane flutes and other instruments.
• Shape-note singing grew out of gospel gatherings and community worship traditions.

This mixing of cultures created something unique. Learning these instruments means learning a language built by many voices.

Preservation: Keeping It Real Without Keeping It Frozen

There’s real value in knowing the old songs, the traditional techniques, and the stories behind the tunes. Preservation matters because it connects us to the people who came before and the communities that sustained Appalachian music through hard times.

But preservation can become a trap if we treat traditional music like a museum artifact. The music stayed alive for generations because people made it their own, adapted it to their lives, and passed it forward with changes intact.

Folk music has always moved and changed along with the people who play it. From barn dances and front-porch gatherings to community halls and festival stages, every generation adds a little something new. Steps shift, tempos change, and musicians swap ideas. That’s how this music and dance tradition has traveled through history and stayed alive.

Evolution: New Voices, Ancient Echoes

Today’s artists are taking the tradition and making it their own. That means bringing new perspectives, new languages, and new sounds into conversation with old forms.

Folk culture is expanding in several directions at once:

• Genre blending brings together bluegrass music, blues, R&B, and old-time forms.
• Language revitalization efforts use traditional songs sung in Cherokee and other Indigenous languages.
• Reclamation projects highlight overlooked histories, especially the African American roots of banjo and string band music.
• Cross-cultural collaborations honor multiple heritages within the same performance.
• New songwriting uses traditional forms to address contemporary life.

In this way, the old songs keep traveling. Each generation adds a verse, and the music keeps moving forward. Music and dance programs now teach both the foundations and the innovations together.

The Centennial Sounds Series

The John C. Campbell Folk School‘s Centennial Sounds series puts this philosophy into practice. Running from May through September 2026, the five-concert series brings together artists who embody both preservation and evolution in American folk music.

The lineup includes the Tray Wellington Band with Cherokee Language Repertory Choir, Amythyst Kiah and OkCello, Cornbread & Tortillas with Zoe & Clyde, Rebecca Porter Band with The Wilder Flower, and Jake Blount with Hubby Jenkins and Hannah Mayree in partnership with the Black Banjo Reclamation Project. Each performance happens on Monday evenings in the historic Festival Barn.

These concerts celebrate the Folk School’s 100 years of keeping music and dance at the center of community life. Tickets are $25 for adults and $5 for youth, available at www.folkschool.org/sounds.

Why Live Music Matters

Live music brings people together in a way that recordings simply cannot. When musicians share songs face-to-face, everyone becomes part of the moment. At music festivals and community gatherings, strangers turn into neighbors while feet tap and voices join in. These shared experiences help keep traditions alive and remind us that music grows best when people gather to play and listen together.

Programs that support young musicians help carry this tradition forward. The JAM program for teens, for example, gives young players a welcoming place to learn songs and build confidence.

Come experience it yourself! Attend a live event or sign up for a music class to join the fun.

About the Folk School

Folk School staff present a check to four local food banks for funds raised during the school’s annual Empty Bowls event.

Thanks to community support and generous donations, the Folk School annual Empty Bowls event, held March 28, raised more than $10,000 to infuse local food insecurity efforts.  

 The school presented a check for $10,608.46  to be split among four food banks serving Clay and Cherokee counties: the Sharing Center in Murphy, Matt’s Ministry, Cherokee County Food Bank, and Clay County Food Pantry.  

“The inspiring generosity of our community helps us continue this vital outreach event,” said Event and Volunteer Manager Morgan Budzinski. “Helping to fight hunger locally takes many hands, and we want to thank everyone who donated to, supported, or attended Empty Bowls or contributed after the event.”  

 The Empty Bowls event is a labor of love for Folk School staff and volunteers, Budzinski added.  

 Special thanks go out to Clay Coordinator Sienna Shute, who led student and volunteer potters through the multi-step process to build several hundred bowls and Executive Chef Terra Ciotta and Folk School Dining Hall staff who created the meal, including extra portions of soup sold for take-home meals. Thanks also to Dawn Davis and David Bellino, who provided live music for the evening. And to maximize generosity, surplus bowls were offered for sale to Folk School staff and any remaining bowls were donated to an Asheville-based nonprofit who stage a similar event.

If you or your organization is interested in participating in next year’s Empty Bowls event, please contact Morgan Budzinski at 828-837-2775, ext. 116 or email Morgan via our website.