Washington, D.C. — Eleven master artists from around the country will arrive in Washington, D.C. the week of September 15th for a series of celebratory events to honor their receipt of a 2008 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The fellowship is the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Representing a cross section of cultures and art forms, these awardees were chosen for their artistic excellence, cultural authenticity, and contributions to their field. The fellowship includes a one-time award of $20,000.

Capitol Hill Awards Ceremony

NEA Chairman Dana Gioia and Members of Congress will present the 2008 NEA National Heritage Fellowships in a Capitol Hill ceremony on Wednesday, September 17 at 4 p.m. in the Cannon Caucus Room (Room 345) in the Cannon House Office Building, located at 1st Street and Independence Ave., SE. Photographs of the Capitol Hill awards ceremony will be distributed via e-mail the following morning.

Free Concert

On Friday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m., the Fellows will perform at a free special concert, held at the Music Center at Strathmore, located at 5301 Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda, Maryland. Opened in February 2005, the Music Center is a 1,976-seat concert hall and education center in a state-of-the-art, fully accessible facility. Nick Spitzer, host of PRI’s American Routes, will emcee this exciting evening of mini-performances, visual art displays, and artist interviews.

Free tickets are available from two locations: the Music Center at Strathmore Ticket Office, 301-581-5100 or www.strathmore.org, and the House of Musical Traditions, 7040 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland, 301-270-9090.

PLEASE NOTE: Although the performance may register as officially sold out, there will be seats available beginning 15 minutes before curtain. The NEA encourages those without tickets to arrive 20-30 minutes early.

The 2008 NEA National Heritage Fellowships recipients are:

The 2008 Bess Lomax Hawes Award goes to traditional arts specialist and advocate Walter Murray Chiesa of Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

* Mac Wiseman will be unable to attend the NEA National Heritage Fellowships events due to ill health. 1997 NEA National Heritage Fellow and bluegrass musician Jesse McReynolds will perform at the concert to honor Mr. Wiseman.

NEA National Heritage Fellows at Kennedy Center

In addition to the 2008 National Heritage Fellowships events, more than ten NEA National Heritage Fellows, including 2008 fellow Dr. Michael White, will perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts between August 30th and October 5th as part of Prelude 2008: Arts Across America. This festival showcases performing artists from all 50 states, including NEA National Heritage Fellows The Blind Boys of Alabama, Chuck Brown, Pinetop Perkins, and Hazel Dickens. For more information and performance dates, please visit http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/festivals/prelude/.

The Kennedy Center also will host an exhibition of portraits of NEA National Heritage Fellows by photographer Tom Pich. The exhibition includes a sample of the more than 90 portraits taken by Pich over the course of 17 years when he traveled to communities large and small to capture these artists in their homes or studios. A sample of those portraits can be viewed at http://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/. The exhibition will be on display in the Kennedy Center’s Hall of Nations September 4 through October 5, 2008.

The NEA National Heritage events are produced in partnership with the National Council for the Traditional Arts. The concert is presented in partnership with Strathmore and WAMU 88.5 FM provides media sponsorship.

For more information on the NEA National Heritage Fellowships, including bios, photos, and audio interviews with the fellowship recipients, please go to http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/.

The NEA National Heritage Fellowships program is made possible through the support of the Darden Restaurants Foundation and family of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, and Seasons 52 restaurants.

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Mac Wiseman, who has plowed deep ruts over several decades on the bluegrass circuit, has been named a National Heritage Fellowship Award recipient by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) in Washington, D.C.

The prestigious award, initiated by NEA in 1982, honors American folk artists for “their contributions to our national cultural mosaic,” according to NEA’s Web site.

Since its inception, more than 300 artists have received the Heritage Award.

“As a group, these folk and traditional artists reflect the diverse heritage and cultural traditions that transcend their beginnings to become part of our national character. Americans all, they bring age-old customs, crafts and ways of living to the flux of American life…,” according to NEA.

National Heritage Fellowships begin with nominations from ordinary citizens who put forward local folk and traditional artists that they feel are deserving of national recognition and who embody artistic excellence, authenticity, and significance within their tradition.

Each year, a select group of these artists come to Washington to receive their award in a public ceremony and perform in a concert during late September.

Wiseman was born in Crimora, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley. Both of his parents sang old ballads around the house and would play recordings of early country musicians for entertainment. Wiseman began to sing in public at the age of 12, but he was stricken with polio in his youth and that curtailed his performances for a time.

With the help of the National Foundation of Polio, he attended music school in Dayton, Va. Soon he was singing on a local radio station in Harrisonburg, Va., and in 1946 he joined the band of Molly O’Day, who taught him songs, singing style, and a love of the classic country repertoire.

Wiseman became an original member of Lester Flatt’s and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, recording his first Mercury session with them in 1948, and in 1949 he joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys at the Grand Ole Opry.

In 1951, he began his solo career, gaining fame as having the “voice with a heart,” and recording such classics as “Tis Sweet to Be Remembered,” “Love Letters in the Sand,” “Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy,” and “Shackles and Chains.”

Wiseman went to Hollywood in 1957 to head the country music section of Dot Records. Along with other music industry leaders, in 1958 he co-founded the Country Music Association for which he was the first secretary and treasurer.

During the 1960s he often opened for Johnny Cash at folk festivals such as Newport and Mariposa, as well as opening for Cash at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl.

Still known for his soulful high tenor singing, last Mac Wiseman and songwriter John Prine released a well-received duet album entitled “Standard Songs for Average People.”

Wiseman recorded three still unreleased numbers with Johnny Cash in what turned out to be Cash’s final sessions.

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Washington, DC – The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced the 2008 recipients of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Mac Wiseman was among the eleven fellowships, which include a one-time award of $20,000 each.

These awardees were chosen for their artistic excellence and contributions to our nation’s cultural heritage. They represent a cross-section of ethnic cultures and traditions and art forms ranging from saddlemaking and dance to bluegrass music and drum making.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia said, “It is important to recognize the diverse traditional arts that enrich America’s cultural landscape and to award those whose dedication and artistry are so integral to the continuation of these art forms.”

These honorees join the ranks of previous Heritage Fellows, including bluesman B.B. King, Cajun fiddler and composer Michael Doucet, cowboy poet Wally McRae, gospel singer Shirley Caesar, and bluegrass musician Bill Monroe. Since 1982, the Endowment has awarded 338 NEA National Heritage Fellowships.

Fellowship recipients are nominated by the public, often by members of their own communities, and then judged by a panel of experts in folk and traditional arts on the basis of their continuing artistic accomplishments and contributions as practitioners and teachers. This year a nine-member panel reviewed 235 nominations for the 11 fellowships. The ratio of winners to nominees indicates the extraordinary level of competition for this national honor.

The 2008 awardees will come to Washington, D.C. in September for a series of events including a banquet at the Library of Congress and an awards presentation on Capitol Hill as well as a concert scheduled for Friday, September 19, at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

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