Press Releases
Jennings Chestnut Selected To Participate In The South Carolina Arts Commission's 2007 Institute For Community Scholars
Local Bluegrass Musician To Document Bluegrass Music Jam Sessions Across The Lowcountry
Jennings Chestnut, founder of The Rivertown Bluegrass Society of Conway, owner of Chestnut Mandolins, and organizer of Conway’s annual Bluegrass on the Waccamaw Festival, recently graduated from the 2007 Institute for Community Scholars held at Clemson University. The five-day intensive workshop, sponsored by the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Folklife and Traditional Arts Division, is held every two years for 25 participants from all over the state.
Institute participants learn methods by which to document community traditions. They receive assistance in designing and executing a community research project, cataloguing the results material and developing considerations for public programming based upon the project material generated.
Chestnut was chosen to participate in the Institute for Community Scholars because of his desire to document regularly held bluegrass music gatherings, or what is considered “jam sessions,” from the North Carolina state line to Charleston. His goal is to educate and encourage interest in the history and preservation of Bluegrass music as an art form.
Chestnut is the owner of Chestnut Mandolins, located on Main Street in downtown Conway. In 1971, he taught himself how to make F-5 style mandolins and to date has made 73. He won the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award, given by the South Carolina Arts Commission, McKissick Museum and the State of South Carolina, in 2002.
