Message from the Executive Director – Summer 2025

Subscribers were notified that the Folk Art Messenger will be discontinued at the end of 2025. That means that this issue, #115, is the next to last one. Messenger #116 will be published in November or December 2025.

Any new member will receive all three issues, and we are still accepting renewals for those whose membership expired in 2024. They will also receive all three issues. Back issues will still be available through the Folk Art Society website, www.folkart.org, and the website will continue to operate for the foreseeable future. If you have any questions, please email: fasa@folkart.org.

The Virginia Professional Communicators met on May 3, 2025, for its annual conference at the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown, Va. At the annual meeting, the state awards for writing and photography published in 2024 are presented. Three members of the Folk Art Messenger staff won awards.

I entered nine categories and won nine awards. First Place awards were won by the Folk Art Messenger #113 and for the obituary of the artist Jim Harley. A Second Place award was given to the obituary for Sanford Smith, and Third Place was given to the obituary for Nall Hollis. Honorable Mention awards were given for the obituaries of Audrey Heckler and Grey Carter, the Message from the Executive Director, and the FASA Facebook and Website.

Catherine Venable won a Second Place award for her Messenger article, “Acie Brown: Autistic and Adventurous.” Beth Wiltshire won a Second Place award for her poem, “Justice,” written for the publication she edits, Phoenix Rising.

The First Place awards will go on to the national contest of the National Federation of Press Women at the conference held in Golden, Colorado, on September 11-13, 2025.

We have a sad note to finish this column. Ronnie Sampson, the first designer of the Folk Art Messenger when it began in 1987, died on June 16 of a heart attack in Oakland, Calif. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Martin. Ronnie was an original and creative designer who created the Folk Art Society’s wonderful Star logo, which has graced our stationary, our conference brochures and, of course, the Folk Art Messenger for these past 38 years. Ronnie moved from Richmond, Va., to Oakland where he and Nancy ran a successful design business both in California and in the Far East. We loved him, and we miss him.