Kathleen Morrissey of the West Plains Council on the Arts and Cleo Cockrum of the Harlin Museum recently attended a statewide dulcimer workshop at the Governor’s Office Building in Jefferson City.
The early-April event brought together educators from across Missouri to explore the history and cultural significance of the dulcimer. Participants received hands-on instruction with both the mountain dulcimer and hammered dulcimer and learned strategies for incorporating the traditional instruments into classroom instruction to meet Missouri curriculum objectives.
Cockrum and Morrissey have promoted dulcimer education locally through the Ozark Heritage Festival (formerly Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival), held each October in West Plains. For past hands-on festival workshops, Morrissey, Cockrum and Cockrum’s daughter, Naomi, made 25 dulcimers from cardboard for participants to use.
Building on that experience, they attended this year’s workshop in Jefferson City to explore new ways to increase student engagement with the instrument beyond the annual festival.
“This workshop was not only informative, but also provides us with the inspiration and motivation to reexamine ideas for more ways to utilize the dulcimers,” Cockrum said.
The workshop was co-sponsored by the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Prairie Dulcimer Club. The inaugural Dulcimer Day concluded April 11 with a public concert featuring championship-winning dulcimer musicians, who later led attendees in a jam session. Music filled the Capitol rotunda through the day as participants celebrated Missouri’s musical heritage, Cockrum noted.
As a result of the experience, officials with the Harlin Museum and West Plains Council on the Arts — which receives funding from the Missouri Arts Council — are exploring opportunities to expand dulcimer programming locally, including additional workshops and a possible summer dulcimer camp for youth.
