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The Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage (CFCH) is one of three cultural centers within the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. [1] Its motto is "culture of, by, and for the people", and it aims to encourage understanding and cultural sustainability through research, education, and community engagement. The CFCH contains (numerically) the largest collection in the Smithsonian, but is not fully open to the public. [note 1] Its budget comes primarily from grants, trust monies, federal government appropriations, and gifts, with a small percentage coming from the main Smithsonian budget. [2]
The center is composed of three distinct units. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is planned and implemented annually by the Festival staff at the Folklife center. The Smithsonian Folkways Record label comprises a second team working at the center; they produce this non-profit music label with the goal of promoting and supporting the cultural diversity of sound. The third team at CFCH manages and curates the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. While the archive, filled with paper documentation and other memorabilia, is traditionally considered to be museum material, the other two sections exemplify more accurately the direction CFCH is headed, with a "shift from reified and ossified discourses of 'preservation' to more dynamic and ecological models of sustainability". [3] Instead of collecting and curating objects (items, stuff), both the Festival and the Folkways units at CFCH collect, research, and produce experiences.
The compound name, Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage, epitomizes an ongoing transition within the field of cultural studies. In concatenated form, it documents the shift from folklore to cultural heritage that has taken place in academics and in fieldwork within the last 15 years.
The CFCH is one of several federal institutions to have related mandates. The American Folklife Center, at the nearby Library of Congress, limits its scope to American Folklife in contrast to the international scope of the CFCH. The National Endowment for the Arts, also headquartered in Washington, D.C., offers support and funding to both new and established art media. As such, it overlaps with topical arts programs brought to the National Mall each summer during the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The National Park Service has as one of its objectives the preservation of historic sites, partnering with CFCH in their concerns for the cultural sustainability of both tangible and natural cultural resources.
A plethora of newly minted compound concepts have been introduced into the vocabulary and discussion of culture since the turn of the century. The topics and research areas that had been labeled as folklore and folklife are increasingly rebranded as topics within the purview of cultural studies. It is this contemporary shift that the CFCH bridges in its compound title of Folklife & Cultural Heritage.
This linguistic shift can be documented more precisely in the language of the UNESCO treaties. At a meeting in 1989, they published a Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore. This paper defines the field as folklore and uses that term throughout its paper.
Folklore (or traditional and popular culture) is the totality of tradition-based creations of a cultural community, expressed by a group or individuals and recognized as reflecting the expectations of a community in so far as they reflect its cultural and social identity; its standards and values are transmitted orally, by imitation or by other means. Its forms are, among others, language, literature, music, dance, games, mythology, rituals, customs, handicrafts, architecture and other arts. [4]
By 2003, the follow-up treaty was entitled the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Once again the subject matter was defined:
Intangible Cultural Heritage means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.
In the space of 15 years on the international playing field folklore has been rebranded as cultural heritage. It is this dramatic shift that CFCH bridges in its compound title of Folklife & Cultural Heritage.
This eclectic collection of artifacts and activities came together at the Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage through a series of fortuitous and unplanned events. It began with the first Festival of American Folklife in 1967.
In 1964 the new Smithsonian secretary, S. Dillon Ripley, arrived in Washington with an innovative museum concept; he challenged curators to "take the objects out of their cases and make them sing". To facilitate this, Sec. Ripley appointed James R. Morris as the Smithsonian's first Director of Museum Services. [5] Jim Morris had no professional museum experience. Nevertheless, he proposed to stage an outdoor festival on the National Mall during the summer, building on his previous career as both performer and manager in the music industry. Using the (by then) well established National Folk Festival as a model, he wanted to exhibit and celebrate different folk traditions from across the nation. [6] This was non-standard for the Smithsonian, and guaranteed to provoke curators well-established inside their elegant, ordered museum buildings. [7]
Once approved by Ripley, Morris hired Ralph Rinzler to help him produce this festival for the upcoming summer 1967. Rinzler had previously worked at the Newport Folk Festival, and brought with him both the know-how and connections needed to pull together a new DC folk festival. The first Festival of American Folklife, with a budget of $4,900 and showcasing eighty-four participants, took place over the Fourth of July weekend 1967 on the National Mall and on the plaza of the Museum of History and Technology. By the time of the Bicentennial Celebration 10 years later, the DC Folklife Festival had been incorporated into the festivities for the national party with activities scheduled throughout the summer. It had a seven million-dollar budget, lasted twelve weeks and involved five thousand artists from every region in the United States and from thirty-five other nations. Jim Morris and Ralph Rinzler were named Washingtonians of the Year. Following the Bicentennial Festival, Jim Morris went on to other positions in the Smithsonian complex. Ralph Rinzler continued in the Festival organization, originally as part of the Smithsonian's Division of Performing Arts until a separate Office of Folklife Programs was created in 1980.
Now that the festival organization and model were well established, Rinzler began to explore other varieties of folklife productions appropriate for a national museum. He spear-headed the protracted negotiations to purchase the Folkways music collection from Moe Asch, including both recordings and business files. These were successfully concluded in 1987, and this collection became the core of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, a rich resource for the study of folk culture and music. The recordings were bundled into the Smithsonian Folkways label.
In 1998, the Festival was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival to reflect its international interests, and in 1999 the office was renamed the Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage to reflect its research and public program functions. Ralph Rinzler worked at the center until his death in 1994.
Since 1967 the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has enlivened the National Mall and excited visitors with ongoing performances and demonstrations of contemporary cultural traditions. It has become a national and international model of a research-based presentation of intangible cultural heritage. Year after year, it continues to bring musicians, artists, performers, craftspeople, workers, cooks, and storytellers into this public forum to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and aesthetics that embody the creative vitality of community-based traditions. [8]
The Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has as its stated mission to curate and provide public access to each item in their collection of folk music, spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. The record label originated as the Folkways Records of Moe Asch, which were donated to the Smithsonian in 1989 under the unique condition that all records in the collection remain available "forever", regardless of sales. Since then, the label has expanded on Asch's vision of documenting and preserving music and soundscapes from around the world. It now includes an extensive collection of traditional American music, children's music, and international music. [note 2] As such, Smithsonian Folkways has become an important collection to the musical community to access and research these recordings from all over the world. [9]
The Archives' holdings were seeded by the business records of the Folkways Record label, which were acquired by the CFCH in 1987, and contain the business files of Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie among others. The archive continues to grow in tandem with both the annual Folklife Festival, and the Folkways record label; it serves as the documentation and research foundation for the activities of these other two units of the CFCH. As with all archives, the Folklife Archives is currently working hard to move its entire collection into digital format, thus enabling global access to the artifacts. This includes not only the artifacts which are born-digital but also older analog forms which require reformatting for the digital world. [10]
In alignment with the mission of the Smithsonian Institution, [11] the Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage is actively promoting and supporting research in fields under its purview. Currently there are three main research areas actively sponsored by CFCH.
Introduced as a concept in the Brundtland Report published in 1987, sustainable development was originally defined as encompassing three domains: environmental, economic, and social. It posited that these components must work in concert with each other to insure that current development does not impede development in the future. In 2010, a fourth component was added to this model: culture. This component, previously tucked in with social sustainability, was now to considered in its own right. [12] By acknowledging culture to be independent and separate from the social development of individuals, it recognizes the power and role of cultural structures and forms to give shape and meaning to a social group.
This is the moment when the CFCH took notice. An active research group was formed to explore and articulate this concept of cultural sustainability. How is this defined, and how is it measured? Their goal is to explore means and indicators for assessing the impacts of culture on sustainable development, to develop best practices for bringing culture into political and social policy, and to share their findings with individuals, communities and policymakers around the world. [note 3]
In the practical implementation of cultural sustainability, CFCH also manages three different projects where the theoretical finding of this research can be put to test in the field. The "My Armenia". project is a collaboration between the people of Armenia, the Smithsonian, and USAID. In their "Artisan Initiative"., CFCH is dedicated to building the sustainability of craft traditions of individuals and groups. A third team involved in the more theoretical work on "cultural policy". works with UNESCO, ministries of culture around the world, as well as local, national, and international governments to recommend and develop policy concepts and language on cultural sustainability.
Working in collaboration with the Smithsonian initiative "Recovering Voices"., this interdisciplinary research program explores relationships between language revitalization, cultural heritage, and traditional cultural transmission. How much of the culture of a region is embodied in the actual vocabulary of its language? What unique knowledge is lost when a language has lost its last native speaker? These are some of the issues investigated in this research area, which focuses specifically on the indigenous or minoritized languages of Europe. The charge for this inquiry was set forth in 1992 with passage of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which mandates protection and promotion of historical regional and minority languages in Europe. Spotlighting these questions also brings into sharp relief the shadow side of minority language communities, which are characteristically marked by poverty, isolation, segregation, travel restrictions, and censorship. [13]
"The past is never dead. It's not even past. " This quote from William Faulkner neatly sums up the work at CFCH. Along with the artifacts of material culture, we are blanketed with artifacts of intangible cultural heritage, including traditions of performance, ritual, music, dance, knowledge, storytelling, and oral transmission. Tradition is always with us, shaping our thoughts, our behavior, our path into the future. This research group brings together thought leaders, both digitally and in person, to explore some of the critical issues facing our nation and the world. This new platform is one of the ways in which the center is working to implement a strategic plan goal of convening conversations on topics of importance. [note 4] Through these connections with external networks and strategic cultural partners, best practices and challenges emerge to inform the future of cultural heritage policy and practice at the Smithsonian. As one of the "Grand Challenges" [14] of the Smithsonian, CFCH strives to be steward and ambassador of cultural connections.
Morris, James R. , Smithsonian Impresario: A Memoir by James Morris (2011-10-27)
Ripley, S. Dillon, The Sacred Grove, Essays on Museums.
National Folk Festival History, http://ncta-usa.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NFF-History.pdf "National Folk Festival History" (PDF).
Folklore is the expression body of culture shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, taking actions for folk beliefs, the forms and rituals of celebrations such as Christmas and weddings, folk dances and initiation rites. Each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next. Folklore is not something one can typically gain in a formal school curriculum or study in the fine arts. Instead, these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration. The academic study of folklore is called folklore studies or folkloristics, and it can be explored at undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. levels.
Folklore studies, also known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the academic study of traditional culture from the folklore artifacts themselves. It became established as a field across both Europe and North America, coordinating with Volkskunde (German), folkeminner (Norwegian), and folkminnen (Swedish), among others.
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically trained within a popular tradition, rather than in the fine art tradition of the culture. There is often overlap, or contested ground with 'naive art'. "Folk art" is not used in regard to traditional societies where ethnographic art continue to be made.
Alan Jabbour was an American musician and folklorist, and the founding director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
Public folklore is the term for the work done by folklorists in public settings in the United States and Canada outside of universities and colleges, such as arts councils, museums, folklife festivals, radio stations, etc., as opposed to academic folklore, which is done within universities and colleges. The term is short for "public sector folklore" and was first used by members of the American Folklore Society in the early 1970s.
An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are physical intellectual wealth. Intangible heritage consists of nonphysical intellectual wealth, such as folklore, customs, beliefs, traditions, knowledge, and language. Intangible cultural heritage is considered by member states of UNESCO in relation to the tangible World Heritage focusing on intangible aspects of culture. In 2001, UNESCO made a survey among States and NGOs to try to agree on a definition, and the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was drafted in 2003 for its protection and promotion.
Simon J. Bronner is an American folklorist, ethnologist, historian, sociologist, educator, college dean, and author.
Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records, donated the entire Folkways Records label to the Smithsonian. The donation was made on the condition that the Institution continue Asch's policy that each of the more than 2,000 albums of Folkways Records remain in print forever, regardless of sales. Since then, the label has expanded on Asch's vision of documenting the sounds of the world, adding six other record labels to the collection, as well as releasing over 300 new recordings. Some well-known artists have contributed to the Smithsonian Folkways collection, including Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly. Famous songs include "This Land Is Your Land", "Goodnight, Irene", and "Midnight Special." Due to the unique nature of its recordings, which include an extensive collection of traditional American music, children's music, and international music, Smithsonian Folkways has become an important collection to the musical community, especially to ethnomusicologists, who utilize the recordings of "people's music" from all over the world.
Ralph Rinzler was a mandolin player, folksinger, and the co-founder of the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall every summer in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a curator for American art, music, and folk culture at the Smithsonian. This festival was from the beginning and continues to be a major event for musicians, artistans, and craftsman from a broad variety of American culture, including African American, Native American, Appalachian, Southern, Western and other groups in the United States.
Betty Jane Belanus is an American writer and folklorist. Belanus completed her graduate work in folklore at Indiana University and has been with the Smithsonian Institution since 1987, ultimately working with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage as an education specialist. Part of her work with the Smithsonian has been the curating of programs for the Smithsonian's annual Folklife Festival, including the 2009 Wales program. She has worked on "Smithsonian Inside Out", on the occupational life of the Smithsonian.
Smithsonian Global Sound (SGS) is the digital archive project of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (SCFCH), launched in 2005 by Smithsonian Folkways, the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. Its stated mission is to preserve and disseminate a wide range of the world's music. By making the archives of Smithsonian Folkways and its partner organizations available for online purchase and downloading, Smithsonian Global Sound brings the promotion and preservation of local traditions into the global digital age.
Richard Kurin, an American cultural anthropologist, museum official and author, is the Acting Provost and Under Secretary for Museums and Research at the Smithsonian Institution. He is a key member of the senior team managing the world's largest museum and research complex with 6,500 employees and a $1.4 billion annual budget, caring for more than 139 million specimens, artifacts and artworks, working in 145 countries around the globe, hosting some 30 million visitors a year, and reaching hundreds of millions online and through the Smithsonian's educational programs and media outreach. Kurin is particularly responsible for all of the national museums, scholarly and scientific research centers, and programs spanning science, history, art and culture.
Jim Garland was a miner, songwriter, folksinger, and folk song collector from the coal mining country of eastern Kentucky, where he was involved with the communist-led National Miners Union (NMU) during the violent labor conflicts of the early 1930s called the Harlan County War.
The Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD) is a leading folk/traditional arts organization based in New York City. Originally established as the Balkan Arts Center in 1968, CTMD assists the city's ethnic and immigrant communities in maintaining their traditions and cultural heritage. CTMD has developed a range of programs that emphasize research, documentation, collaboration, presentation, and education to help advance its mission of cultural equity. Over the past four decades, CTMD’s programs have led to the creation of nationally renowned ensembles, folk arts festivals, and community-based cultural organizations. CTMD provides the public with a full calendar of events designed to showcase and promote the diversity of New York City's performing arts traditions.
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
Michael Atwood Mason is an American folklorist and museum professional. He was, up to February 2021, the Director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Family folklore is the branch of folkloristics concerned with the study and use of folklore and traditional culture transmitted within an individual family group. This includes craft goods produced by family members or memorabilia that have been saved as reminders of family events. It includes family photos, photo albums, along with bundles of other pages held for posterity such as certificates, letters, journals, notes, and shopping lists. Family sayings and stories which recount true events are retold as a means of maintaining a common family identity. Family customs are performed, modified, sometimes forgotten, created or resurrected with great frequency. Each time the result is to define and solidify the perception of the family as unique.
Intangible cultural heritage are elements of the cultural heritage of Georgia which are abstract and must be learned, encompassing traditional knowledge including festivals, music, performances, celebrations, handicrafts, and oral traditions.
Folk and traditional arts are rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a community. They encompass the body of expressive culture associated with the fields of folklore and cultural heritage. Tangible folk art includes objects which historically are crafted and used within a traditional community. Intangible folk arts include such forms as music, dance and narrative structures. Each of these arts, both tangible and intangible, was originally developed to address a real need. Once this practical purpose has been lost or forgotten, there is no reason for further transmission unless the object or action has been imbued with meaning beyond its initial practicality. These vital and constantly reinvigorated artistic traditions are shaped by values and standards of excellence that are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community, through demonstration, conversation, and practice.
Janie Hunter was an American singer and storyteller who worked to preserve Gullah culture and folkways in her home of Johns Island, South Carolina. She received a 1984 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in recognition of her contributions to folk art and traditions.
