Committee of One Hundred Celebrates
the 40th Anniversary of the Ozark Folk Center
Little Rock, AR – The Committee of One Hundred for the Ozark Folk Center State Park (COOH), celebrated the folk center’s 40th Anniversary on Tuesday, June 18, at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. Members of the statewide organization were greeted with a live performance of traditional mountain music and entertained by a panel of folk center founders who reminisced about its history and inaugural opening in 1973.
Kay Thomas, a former Program Manager of the folk center, introduced the panelists who included Executive Director of Arkansas State Parks Richard Davies, the first OFC Program Manager Charly Sandage, the first OFC Manager of Operations Tom Simmons, and Jerry Lovenstein, one of the first artists to receive a COOH-funded Craft Apprenticeship. COOH member and First Lady Ginger Beebe was present for the program which culminated in the COOH Summer Luncheon held on the mezzanine of the museum, catered by the Copper Grill Restaurant. Special luncheon guests included Joe Buckley, Ozark Folk Center State Park Manager, Melody Miller, OFC Office Manager.
Bessie Wolfe founded the Committee of One Hundred in 1974, recruiting women volunteers from across the state to help preserve traditional Ozark mountain arts, crafts, and music by supporting folk center programming. Since that time COOH has funded numerous craft apprenticeships, youth scholarships and instruments for Ozark music instruction (Music Roots Program), the Heritage Herb Garden and Greenhouse educational laboratory, and many other programs featured at the folk center, the only state park dedicated to continuing Ozark mountain culture for future generations. Find COOH on Facebook: Committee of One Hundred for the Ozark Folk Center.
The mission of the Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View, Arkansas, is to provide living history. It exists to preserve, document, display and interpret the cultural and social history of the Ozark region, an area that takes up part of five states: Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. For more information about Ozark heritage, folk arts & crafts activities, concerts, special events, instructional opportunities, and more, go to the OFC website http://www.ozarkfolkcenter.com/, call 870-269-3851, or e-mail ozarkfolkcenter@arkansas.com.
