2015-2017 National Folk Festivals Location Announced!

This just in from Julia Olin, Executive Director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts:

Greensboro, North Carolina
courtesy of the National Council for the Traditional Arts website

"Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to share with you that Greensboro, North Carolina, has been selected as host city for the 2015-2017 National Folk Festivals. The festival’s three-year tenure in downtown Greensboro will begin with the presentation of the 75th National Folk Festival over the weekend of September 11-13, 2015.

Since 1934, the National Folk Festival has provided a way for people to embrace the dazzling array of cultural traditions that define our nation, celebrating the diversity and vibrancy of American culture through music, dance, traditional craft, storytelling, food and more. To date, this free-to-the-public "moveable feast of deeply traditional folk arts" has been held in 27 communities around the country.

The National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) chose Greensboro through a nationwide competitive process involving 32 American cities. This marks the first time the festival will be held in North Carolina.

As always, the festival will showcase the very finest performers from all parts of the nation, representing a broad diversity of cultural traditions. Six to seven stages ranging in size from large, open-air venues to small, intimate stages will offer continuous performances throughout the three-day event. There will be a pavilion where festivalgoers can dance non-stop, plus workshops, regional and ethnic foods, puppetry, parades, crafts exhibits and demonstrations, a family area and a festival marketplace.

The festival will also celebrate deep traditions for which North Carolina is famous, as well as shine a light on the living heritage of immigrant groups new to the region, reflecting the evolving character of the host city and state. Greensboro's unique history has been shaped by the pacifist traditions of its 18th-century Quaker founders, a pivotal battle of the American Revolution in 1781, the city's emergence as the center of the textile and furniture industries, the beginnings of the Civil Rights sit-in movement in the 1960s, and the arrival of new populations from around the globe.

The NCTA is producing the 75th, 76th and 77th National Folk Festivals in partnership with ArtsGreensboro, and in cooperation with the City of Greensboro, the Greensboro Convention & Visitors' Bureau, Action Greensboro, and other local groups.

We hope to see you in Greensboro this coming September. Our new web address is www.ncta-usa.org."

If you enjoy our presentations of traditional culture at the Great Lakes Folk Festival, it might be worth it to make a trip to North Carolina!

Michigan Barn Preservation Network Seeks Nominees for "Barn of the Year"

From the Michigan Barn Preservation Network press release:

Seeking Nominations 2015 Barn of the Year Postmarked by January 9, 2015   Nominate a Barn! The Michigan Barn Preservation Network (MBPN) seeks nominations for the 2015 Barn of the Year Awards. Each year, the MBPN honors those who make the extra effort to maintain their historic barn with integrity. We recognize that barns must adapt in order to survive, so we recognize those who have modified their barns in a sensitive, creative manner to accommodate an alternative use. Owners include individuals, businesses and public organizations.  To reflect these variables, the MPBN has developed the following award categories: 1)    Continuing Family/Private Agricultural Use 2)    Family/Private Adaptive Use 3)    Non-profit Agricultural or Adaptive Use 4)    Commercial Agricultural or Adaptive Use Barns will be judged for completeness of information presented in the application, sensitivity and integrity of repairs or modification, visual appeal, creativity, thoroughness of work, and effort expended to repair and maintain. The winning nominations will be presented an award at the MBPN annual conference in March at Michigan State University. Three items are required for the submission: a written narrative, photographs, and a completed MBPN Survey form. The Application form and the Survey form can be found on the MBPN website (www.mibarn.net) under the Resource tab. Nominations must be postmarked by January 9, 2015. For more information contact Barn of the Year Committee Chairman Jerry Damon at runningbuds@aol.com

Review of "Earth Stories" Quilt Exhibit at the MSU Museum

“Cooking with the Sun,” detail, Jennifer Day (photo courtesy of the artist)

Jonathan Rinck of the International Sculpture Center has written an article reviewing Earth Stories, and art quilt exhibition on view at the MSU Museum until November 26. Rinck writes...

"These quilts span an astonishingly broad array of environment-related subject matter, from wind-farming to consumerism.  By offering such a superb fusion of craftsmanship and concept, Earth Stories obliterates any lingering division between craft and fine art, while emphatically making the point that the arts really can make a real-world difference."

 Stop by before the exhibit moves on to the University of Central Missouri Gallery of Art and Design. As Rinck says, "this is not your grandmother's quilt show."

Click here to read the full article!

New Exhibit at MSU's LookOut! Gallery Highlights Chilean Textiles

FROM THE RCAH WEBSITE:

From November 3 through November 21, 2014, visit the RCAH LookOut! Art Gallery for "Tapestry as Testimony: Arpilleras of Chile," an exhibition of Chilean arpilleras from the collection of Eliana Loveluck, and for "Broken," an installation addressing human trafficking by Sally Thielen and Susan Clinthorne.

Beyond LookOut! Art Gallery's hours of M-F, 12 to 3 p.m., you can visit the exhibition during the following events, which are free and open to the public.

Additional events include...

Sewing Workshop

On Tuesday, November 11, 2014, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., the RCAH Sewing Club will host an arpillera workshop in coordination with the RCAH LookOut! Art Gallery's "Tapestry as Testimony: Arpilleras of Chile" exhibition of Chilean arpilleras from the collection of Eliana Loveluck.

Participants will visit the exhibit and then go to the studio to create art in response to the question of, "How do you tell a story about social justice or sense of place in a single image?"

All materials are provided, but feel free to bring fabric scraps, buttons, and trim.

Political themes are encouraged but not necessary. Sewing is also not necessary, but is an option.

Panel Discussion

On Thursday, November 13, 2014, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in C202 Snyder Hall, join MSU Peace and Justice Studies and the RCAH for a panel discussion about arpilleras in the context of General Augusto Pinochet's brutal dictatorship. Light refreshments will be available in LookOut! Art Gallery after the panel discussion.

Reception

On Friday, November 14, 2014, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in LookOut! Art Gallery, meet artists Sally Thielen and Susan Clinthorne in conjunction with the MSU Center for Gender in Global Context human trafficking film screening and conference.

Click here for more details about the exhibition!

Cultivating Connectivity: Folklife and Inclusive Excellence in Museums

Marsha MacDowell discussing lau hala papale (hats woven of palm leaves) with Hawaiian master artists Harriet Soong and Gladys Grace in Carriers of Culture: Native Basketry, Folklife Festival, 2006. Photo by Minnie Wabanimkee, courtesy Michigan State University Museum.

MSU Museum Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage C. Kurt Dewhurst, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Cultural Specialist and Curator Diana Baird N'Diaye, and MSU Museum Curator of Folk Arts Marsha MacDowell have joined together to write an article for Curator: The Museum Journal's latest issue. The article in entitled "Cultivating Connectivity: Folklife and Inclusive Excellence in Museums" Read the abstract below:

"Today there is a growing global awareness of the need to address issues related to the safeguarding and use of both tangible and intangible heritage. By engaging with communities in the documentation of local cultures—especially their folklife, or in other words, their traditional intangible cultural heritage—museums can create collections that will serve as foundations for museum research, exhibitions, and programs that have more resonance with and relevance for those communities. Interactions of these kinds—in particular those of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Michigan State University Museum, home of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, as well as collaborations between the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Great Lakes Folk Festival, and other programs around the world—have served as important platforms for public discourse about a variety of issues and have produced programs and exhibitions both at home and around the world."

Click here to read the full article