John C. Campbell Folk School

Historic folk arts school in North Carolina, United States

The John C. Campbell Folk School, also referred to as "The Folk School", is located in Brasstown, North Carolina. It is the oldest and largest folk school in the United States. It is a non profit adult educational organization based on non competitive learning. The Folk School offers classes year round in over fifty subject areas including art, craft, music, dance, and nature studies. Established in 1925, the Folk School's motto is "I sing behind the plow". It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a national historic district in 1983. The Folk School has more than 800 week long and weekend classes year round in traditional and contemporary arts, including blacksmithing, music, dance, cooking, gardening, nature studies, photography, storytelling, and writing. The 300 acre campus includes a history museum, craft shop, nature trails, lodging, campground, and cafeteria. The school also holds a regular concert series and community dances. The Folk School engages the community through a variety of dance teams including: Rapper Magic Sword, StiX in the Mud Border Morris, Dame's Rocket Northwest Clog, Rural Felicity Garland, and the JCCFS Cloggers. The Folk School hosts more than 6,000 adult students and 100,000 visitors per year. The Fall Festival is the Folk School’s largest annual event, attracting thousands of people to the campus for crafts, food, and folk demonstrations. The festival has been held every year since 1974, except for 2020 and 2021 during the COVID 19 pandemic. Since at least 1954, the Folk School has also hosted an annual summer arts program for children called Little Middle. The Folk School launched its annual Friends & Family Day in 2022 for the community to tour studios and see demonstrations.

After spending eighteen months traveling between Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, visiting local schools along the way, Olive Dame Campbell and her colleague Marguerite Butler, began forming the John C. Campbell Folk School in 1925 in Brasstown, North Carolina, along the Cherokee County and Clay line. This folk high school, or folkehøjskole, was dedicated to her late husband John C. Campbell, and was based on the Danish Folk School style of non competitive education, where no grades were given. Instead, students and teachers formed a community that worked together to help each other advance in various crafts such as blacksmithing. It was originally founded with an emphasis on agriculture and "the doing of life's work." John C. Campbell, (1867–1919) was an American educator and reformer noted for his survey of social conditions in the southern Appalachia. He was born in Indiana and raised in Wisconsin; he studied education and theology in New England. At the turn of the century, the Southern Appalachian region of the United States was viewed as being in need of educational and social missions. Recently married to Olive Dame of Massachusetts, John undertook a fact finding survey of social conditions in the mountains in 1908–1909. The Campbells outfitted a wagon as a traveling home and studied mountain life from Georgia to West Virginia. While John interviewed farmers about their agricultural practices, Olive collected Appalachian ballads and studied the handicrafts of the mountain people. Both were hopeful that the quality of life could be improved by education, and in turn, wanted to preserve and share with the rest of the world the crafts, techniques and tools that the people of the area used in everyday life. The Folkehøjskole had long been a force in the rural life of Denmark. These schools for life helped transform the Danish countryside into a vibrant, creative force. The Campbells talked of establishing such a school in the rural southern United States as an alternative to the higher education facilities that drew young people away from the family farm. Several locations were under consideration for the experimental school. On an exploratory trip, Miss Butler discussed the idea with Fred O. Scroggs, Brasstown's local storekeeper, saying that she would be back in a few weeks to determine if area residents had any interest in the idea. When she returned, it was to a meeting of over 200 people at the local church. The people of far west North Carolina enthusiastically pledged labor, building materials and other support. The Brasstown Carvers started meeting at the Folk School in 1929. A wood carved mule from the Folk School stood on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Oval Office desk in the 1930s. The Folk School also operated a creamery in the 1930s. It was equipped to churn 6,000 pounds of butter a week, one third of which was sold to businesses in Atlanta. The creamery produced ice cream and whole milk as well. As late as 1934 the Folk School and Brasstown operated in its own time zone. At that time Cherokee County operated on Central time and Clay County ran on Eastern time. Due to frequent gatherings at the Folk School, Brasstown clocks were set half way in between to avoid confusion. When it was 1 p. m. in Murphy and 2 p. m. in Hayesville, it was 1:30 p. m. in Brasstown.

The Folk School was named one of “100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life” by National Geographic magazine in 2007 and named “Best of the Road” by Rand McNally Atlas in 2005.