Minnie Adkins Day celebrates the generous artistic world she’s created | Opinion
Minnie Adkins Day is living proof of Harry Truman’s observation: “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.” One of the most delightful arts festivals in Kentucky is successful every year because the event’s namesake has a generous attitude toward handing out credit.
If you ask Minnie Adkins – Kentucky’s most famous living folk artist – why the annual festival on the third Saturday of July in Sandy Hook has become widely recognized as one of the best folk arts festivals in the country, she’ll point to everyone but herself. It’s because of good management by the Elliott County Heritage Arts Network, she says, or the neighbors who cook the food, or the parade of fine musicians on the porch of the Little Sandy Lodge, or the 100 or so artists who come set up a tent.
It’s true that this year’s Minnie Adkins Day on Saturday, July 20 succeeded because of the contributions of many people. But there wouldn’t be a Minnie Adkins Day without Minnie Adkins. The cheerful. loving and engaging 90-year-old self-taught wood carver is a one-woman economic development engine. Unlike most artists, who jealously guard their work and divulge little about their processes and techniques, Minnie taught her friends and neighbors how to do what she does and is delighted in their success. More than a dozen people in Elliott County, most of whom probably never thought of themselves as artists before, have made a living making art because of what she showed them.
Her generosity extends to the flock of folk artists from the South and Midwest who come every year to show and sell their work at Minnie Adkins Day. Thanks to her insistence on keeping the festival affordable, it costs an artist only $10 for a booth. Because of this generosity, the festival is full of artists “from Georgia, North Carolina, Kansas and just all over,” she said.
Minnie can open doors for others because of her wide renown as one of America’s most important folk artists. Her lovingly carved and painted red foxes, bears, possums, tigers, bright blue roosters and other figures are in the collections of The American Folk Art Museum, The Smithsonian, The National Gallery of Art and other prestigious institutions.
Carvings that she sold for a few dollars in the 80s and 90s regularly fetch $500 to $1,000 and more today. “In the early days, I’d carve things and give them to people for birthdays and Christmas, and sometimes they ended up in the trash can. Well, people say they wish they had that trash can today,” she said.
In recent years, Minnie’s work has found a wider audience through her collaboration with Lexington author Mike Norris, who has written a series of children’s books illustrated with photographs of Minnie’s carvings. The duo’s latest collaboration, “Mommy Goose’s Appalachian Melodies,” made its debut at this year’s festival and quickly sold out all copies available. Published by the University Press of Kentucky, the book is the most comprehensive collection yet of Mike’s writing and Minnie’s art – with about 40 poems and story rhymes and over 200 carvings, each carving created just for the book.
“One of the themes of “Appalachian Melodies” is the power of words, especially to the people of Eastern Kentucky and Southern Appalachia,” Mike said. “The way we speak in this part of the state is not really celebrated in other parts of the country, even in other parts of the state. But Mommy Goose makes the point that the way you learned to talk growing up is part of your birthright. You shouldn’t be ashamed of your culture.You should honor it by learning all you can about words and language it will serve you well in the world.”
To serve yourself well in 2025, I recommend you mark your calendar for the third Saturday in July and get yourself to Sandy Hook for Minnie Adkins Day. You’ll be richer for it, no matter how much you spend on good art, good food and good times.
Jeffrey Bradford is the retired owner of a Nashville public relations firm who recently moved to Lexington, his hometown, to play with grandchildren.
