History:

In addition to the community-created quilt for Foxfire’s 20th anniversary, they also made a banner in honor of the pivotal members of Foxfire. Mike Cook, one of the first Foxfire students, returned after graduating college to help with the audio and video recording during interviews and post-production. Largely due to his efforts, we now have several videos within the Foxfire archives that capture many of our early contacts.

George Reynolds created a special Foxfire music program that was housed inside the Shooting Creek Cabin on The Land. He also founded the Foxfire Records label, which produced two albums of stories and music from Southern Appalachia. Hilton Smith headed the Teacher Network that boomed during the 1990s and early 2000s, spreading the Foxfire method across the globe. Ann Moore would serve as the executive director of Foxfire for several years.

 

 

Album cover for Foxfire Records “It Still Lives,” featuring local musicians and storytellers like Stanley Hicks.

 

Description:

An appliqued banner made for Foxfire’s 20th anniversary. The banner is made from brown, tan, and green cotton with different color applique blocks. Starting at the top left corner the boxes are as follows: a red station wagon with plastic for the windows, labeled with the name “Shelby Farmer;” top right corner has a red telephone and curled cord with the name “Joyce Calborn” in cursive; second row has a block reading “FOXFIRE  VIDEO  PRODUCTIONS” in blue letters with an appliqued video camera on a tripod and the name “Mike Cook.” The center of banner depicts a log cabin, a split rail fence, and hills in the background, above cabin reads “FOXFIRE 20th,” below cabin “1966-1986,” both in tan applique letters. The cabin square has the name “Freda” embroidered in gold. Below the center block are four more blocks: upper left is a banjo, dulcimer, and fiddle above the name “George Reynolds”; upper left is a stout man in black pulling a wagon with square wheels, wagon is full of round wheels, with name “Hilton Smith;” lower left is a fawn holding a branch in its mouth with a sapling beside it, name is “Ann Moore;” lower right is a monarch butterfly on a sunflower with the name “Margie Bennet.” The top of the banner has five 2″ wide green loops. The back of banner is made from unbleached muslin. A wooden dowel (b) is threaded through these for hanging purposes.