NATIONAL ARTS PUBLICATION DATABASE (NAPD)
Anchored In Community - Folk Arts and the Local Arts Agency

Author: Baron, Robert

Publication Year: 1996

Media Type: Periodical (article)

Summary:

Local arts agencies pioneering folk arts programming have found that it opens new relationships to underserved sectors of their communities, furthers mutual understanding between different cultural groups, and offers accessible new artistic experiences.

Abstract:

Since it is so intimately tied to local culture and heritage, folk arts programming is perfectly suited to local arts agencies (LAAs). After all, LAAs should be on the front lines of providing services for arts that express the unique characteristics of their communities. Curiously, involvement of LAAs with this oldest and most enduring kind of cultural expression has only begun to flourish the last few years. Local arts agencies pioneering folk arts programming have found that it opens new relationships to underserved sectors of their communities, furthers mutual understanding between different cultural groups, and offers accessible new artistic experiences.

Any local arts agency in tune with its community tries to address the needs of multiple constituencies. Perhaps the greatest divide facing an LAA separates those people who are not embarrassed to admit that they like art and feel capable of appreciating it, and others who choose to spend their leisure hours and discretionary dollars on activities which they do not single out as artistic. Alas, most people fall within the latter category - even though everyone's life partakes of the aesthetic through activities such as participating in traditional festivals and religious celebrations; making traditional textile arts to give family or friends; adorning the body, home and yard; performing, listening and dancing to music; playing traditional children's games, and telling stories about unusual and everyday events. LAAs involved with folk art recognize this expansive view of the aesthetic and present the best practitioners of traditional arts, who have been aptly called ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Through involvement with a broadening range of art forms and communities, LAAs capture new constituencies composed of diverse ethnic, occupational, generational and religious groups. (p. 1)

CONTENTS
Fresno Arts Council, Fresno, CA.
Regional Arts and Culture Council of Metropolitan Portland, Portland, OR.
Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, Me.
Missouri Folk Arts Program, Columbia, Missouri.
Rennselaer County Council on the Arts, Troy, New York.
In conclusion.
Local Folk Arts enhance K-12 education.
Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, Texarkana, Arkansas.
Kentucky Folklife Program, Frankfurt, Kentucky.
Museum of Western Colorado, Grand Junction, Colorado.
Resources.
National Organizations.
Profiled organizations.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Tourism, Local Arts Agencies, Funding, Cultural Planning, Creative Industries, Creative Economies

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Series Title: Americans for the Arts Monograph

Edition: Volume 5, Number 1

URL:

SBN/ISSN: 1084-645X

Pages: 16

Resources: Document

PUBLISHER INFORMATION

Name: Americans for the Arts

Website URL: https://www.americansforthearts.org