Roadside Theater, Ralph Stanley Museum, and Jettie Baker Center Present Christmas In Appalachia

Roadside Theater, the Ralph Stanley Museum, and the Jettie Baker Center will present Christmas in Appalachia on Saturday, December 16th at 7:00p.m. at the Jettie Baker Center in Clintwood, Virginia. Admission is free, so bring the whole family for a wonderful community celebration during this holiday season!

If you've shopped 'til you've dropped this year and have your Christmas turkey waiting patiently in the chest freezer for a few more weeks, then you're probably ready for a break from the holiday rush. Let Christmas in Appalachia take you back to a time when Christmas was about the things that really matter.

Christmas in Appalachia features Roadside Theater performer Ron Short, local artists, children, parents, grandmas and grandpas, and aunts and uncles in a performance of holiday music, stories, sing-a-longs, and remembrances. It’s a meaningful community celebration of the holidays that recalls Christmas as a time of sharing and being with loved ones. Guests this year include Ken Childress, Scott Mullins, Maggie Stanley, the Ridgewood Boys, and Aaron Davis.

“Christmas in Appalachia is a part of what Roadside Theater does year ‘round—celebrate our mountain culture,” says Roadside’s Ron Short. “It’s a bit like getting together with your extended family—something you enjoy and look forward to all year long!”

Donations to the Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center will be accepted at the door. No reservations are necessary. For more information, contact the Ralph Stanley Museum at 276.926.8550, Roadside Theater at 276.679.3116, the Jettie Baker Center at 276.926.8694, or visit us on the web at www.ralphstanleymuseum.com.

Shop for Museums Tutorial Video

As you get your final holiday shopping list in order this season, remember that we have partnered with ShopforMuseums.com to allow you to donate a portion of what you spend shopping online to the Museum at no extra charge to you. The retailers make the donation! (Read our previous blog entry on the Shop for Museums partnership.)

Now, the update of the day is that ShopforMuseums.com has a training video that explains the process and answers many common questions about the program. So, if you aren't sure how the program works, view the Shop for Museums Patron Tutorial video now!

Happy shopping!

Josh Turner & Ralph Stanley - "Me And God"

If you haven't heard "Me And God," Josh Turner's recent duet with Ralph Stanley, you can now hear the entire song from the Universal Music Group website for Turner's latest CD Your Man.

Many thanks to The Bluegrass Blog for posting this information so we can bring the news to you. Make sure you visit their website as well!

Christmas Open House with Refreshments and Holiday Sales!

Join us for hot chocolate on the front porch of the Museum during and after Clintwood's annual Christmas parade to be held on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 6PM. Refreshments will be provided free of charge to all attendees of the event that evening!

And... while you're on Main Street for the parade, make sure you take a tour through the Museum for a reduced admission price of $5 in celebration of the town's festivities. If you haven't been through or would like to visit us again, we'd love to welcome you into the Museum on December 1st!

Also, you may want to take advantage of our 20% off sale on all CDs for the holiday season as well as a 1/2 price sale on our clay ornaments. Stop by and see us!

Shop for Museums: Donate to the Ralph Stanley Museum Simply by Shopping!

The Ralph Stanley Museum recently partnered with Shop for Museums to allow you to donate a portion of your web purchases to the Museum and its activities. Best of all, it doesn't cost you anything extra! The donation is paid out of the marketing accounts of the places you shop with online.

The process is simple: navigate your web browser to our page on the Shop for Museums site; click "Select This Museum Partner And Start Shopping"; and select your category of interest for a list of cooperating sites. Find the items you want to purchase from these online stores, make your purchase, and a certain percentage of that purchase will automatically be sent to the Ralph Stanley Museum! No strings attached.

Remember, you need to start each online "shopping trip" at Shop for Museums by selecting us as your Museum Partner, but that's it!

So, when you decide to make your holiday purchases this season, consider allowing the companies you shop with to send a special donation on your behalf to the Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center. And... be sure to let us know that you used Shop for Museums to help fund the Museum's Operating and Program accounts. They have created a wonderful program for the nonprofit community!

Take care!

President Bush Announces 2006 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Recipients

Congratulations, Dr. Ralph, on receiving the National Medal of Arts!

This press release is available on the web at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061108.html

President George W. Bush today announced the National Medal of Arts recipients and National Humanities Medal recipients for 2006.

The awards will be presented by the President in an Oval Office ceremony on Thursday, November 9, 2006. The President will be joined by First Lady Laura Bush, Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts, and Dr. Bruce Cole, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities.

National Humanities Medal Recipients:

Fouad Ajami, Middle Eastern Studies Scholar - Washington, DC

James Buchanan, Economist - Fairfax, VA

Nickolas Davatzes, Historian - Wilton, CT

Robert Fagles, Translator and Classicist - Princeton, NJ

The Hoover Institution (John Raisian, Senior Fellow and Director of the Hoover Institution, will accept the award on behalf of the Institution) - Palo Alto, CA

Mary Lefkowitz, Classicist - Wellesley, MA

Bernard Lewis, Middle Eastern Studies Scholar - Princeton, NJ

Mark Noll, Historian of Religion - Notre Dame, IN

Meryle Secrest, Biographer - Washington, DC

Kevin Starr, Historian - San Francisco, CA

National Medal of Arts Recipients:

William Bolcom, Composer - Ann Arbor, MI

Cyd Charisse, Dancer - Los Angeles, CA

Roy R. DeCarava, Photographer - New York, NY

Wilhelmina C. Holladay, Arts Patron - Washington, DC

Interlochen Center for the Arts (Jeffrey Kimpton, President of Interlochen Center for the Arts, will accept the award on behalf of the Center) - Interlochen, MI

Erich Kunzel, Pops Orchestra Conductor - Cincinnati, OH (Mr. Kunzel will not be in attendance. He will receive his medal at a later date.)

Preservation Hall Jazz Band - New Orleans, LA

Gregory Rabassa, Literary Translator - New York, NY

Viktor Schreckengost, Industrial Designer - Cleveland, OH

Dr. Ralph Stanley, Bluegrass Musician - Dickenson County, VA

Welcome to the New Weblog!

As we strive to make our website more informative and user-friendly, we would like to welcome you to the latest addition to the Ralph Stanley Museum home on the web: the Announcements and Events Weblog!

This will be your #1 source for all upcoming events and special announcements from the Ralph Stanley Museum, and we hope you will check back often as we add information to this area of our site including photos, event announcements and recaps, and more!

Also, you may want to visit our new Museum Webstore for Ralph Stanley and the Stanley Brothers CDs and DVDs, Traditional Mountain Music CDs, and more as we update the store with items unique to our gift shop.

We hope you'll visit the Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center website often, and make sure you stop by the Museum and say "hello" when you get the chance!

A Musical Road Trip

The Washington Post published a wonderful article about The Crooked Road: Virginia's Heritage Music Trail in September. We want to make sure that you have the opportunity to read it if you missed it the first time around, so we decided to add it to the new blog.

Please click on the following link to access this great bit of publicity for The Crooked Road and the Ralph Stanley Museum:

A Musical Road Trip
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/
AR2006092100568_3.html