Home Craft Days

About Home Craft Days:
When Mountain Empire Community College opened its doors in southwest, Virginia in 1972, it served one of the richest areas in the nation for traditional music and crafts.

From the beginning, the College recognized the richness of traditional life in the community. On the faculty the first year were two folklorists, Roddy Moore and George Reynolds, who with their students visited musicians and artists throughout southwest, Virginia and learned about their music, arts, and mountain life skills. They invited the folks they met to come to the campus for a celebration of Appalachian culture call Home Craft Days. That first festival in 1972 was one of the finest gatherings of traditional artists and mountain music in memory. There was never any doubt that it should continue, or that it should be part of the College's work in the community.

For pover thirty-four years musicians and craftspeople from southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, and eastern Kentucky have come to Mountain Empire Community College each October for a celebration they have now made their own.

Crafts and demonstrations include weaving, pottery making, grist milling, wood crafting, basket weaving, broom making, quilting, tatting and much more.