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Folk Arts
What is the Folk Arts Program’s purpose?
To perpetuate the living cultural heritage of folk and traditional arts practiced within our region's many ethnic, occupational, regional, religious and other groups through:
- Research and documentation of folk artists and local traditions
- Public programming (exhibitions, performances, artist demonstrations, workshops and other activities) of our region’s traditional arts
- Technical assistance to help
- Individual folk artists with marketing and professional development
- Folk arts groups and organizations interested in developing folk arts activities, with grant writing and program development
What Are Folk Arts?
- Folk arts are traditional cultural expressions through which a group or community maintains and passes on its sense of values, identity and beauty as well as its shared way of life. Folk arts are created by a group of people who share a common ethnic, religious, regional, or occupational background. Folk arts include performance traditions in music, dance and song; traditional crafts and visual arts; verbal arts such as storytelling; festivals and seasonal activities; and regional, ethnic, and family foods.
- Folk arts are usually learned informally through performance, by example, or in oral traditions among families, friends, neighbors, co-workers rather than from the mass media or through formal education.
- Folk arts are an expression of community and serve to bring community together. Folk arts are truly community assets.
- Folklorists ask: What are a community’s traditions? Who is practicing traditional arts in a community? How were those traditions learned? And how are traditional arts being passed on to others or future generations within a community?
What are the Folk Arts Program’s goals?
- To educate the public about folk arts and folk artists. By documenting and presenting traditional artists in our region, our Folk Arts Program provides opportunities for the general public to learn about folk artists who are often unknown outside their own communities. We recognize and honor the artists’ traditions and contributions to his/her community and our larger community as a whole.
- To make best practices for presenting folk arts and folk artists integral to cultural organizations.
- To promote folk arts as community assets . When community members are asked to identify the traditional arts that are important to their community, they equate folk arts with promoting the strengths and assets of their community.
- To help communities preserve the variety and diversity of traditions, which enrich our region in this era of globalization, standardization and disappearing traditions. By documenting and presenting folk arts, our Folk Arts Program works to perpetuate our region’s diverse living heritage of traditional cultures for future generations.
For more information, please contact Sarah Lentini.
Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester
277 North Goodman Street
Rochester , NY 14607
Phone: (585) 473-4000
Website: www.artsrochester.org
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