Dear Potential Festival Volunteer

Dear Potential Festival Volunteer:

Greetings to veteran and new volunteers from the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage! Here at the Center, we are busily organizing the 37th annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, to be held outdoors on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, June 25 through Sunday, June 29, and Wednesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 6. The Festival is a living exhibition of traditional culture featuring outstanding musicians, cooks, singers, craftspeople, storytellers, and dancers. We are currently recruiting volunteers to be a part of making the Festival an exhilarating, enjoyable, and successful experience for our staff, participants, and visitors. This year's programs include:

Mali: From Timbuktu to Washington, D.C.: Griots will sing epic songs of the historic empires. Visitors will see how textiles (including the famous mudcloth) are created from raw cotton and wool, woven, dyed, sewn, and then fashioned into contemporary and traditional designs. Examples of Mali's unique vernacular architecture will be built on site. Crafts represent not only the past but a means of economic development for the future; pottery, gold jewelry and metalsmithing, basket and mat weaving will be featured, as will arts of personal adornment (henna, braiding) and foodways traditions.

Scotland at the Smithsonian: More than one hundred musicians, dancers, master craftspeople, cooks, storytellers, occupational specialists, language artists, and scholars will demonstrate and explain what makes Scotland Scottish. Participants include kilt makers from Morayshire and bagpipe makers from Dunkeld, a ceilidh dance band from Edinburgh, oil field workers from Aberdeen, cooks from Wester Ross, Harris Tweed weavers from the Outer Hebrides and tartan weavers from the Borders, golf club makers from St Andrews, and Scotland's last curling stone manufacturers from Ayrshire. They will be joined by knitters, crystal cutters, silversmiths, tapestry weavers, genealogists, and a stunning lineup of many of Scotland's leading traditional musicians and singers.

Appalachia: Heritage and Harmony: The Festival program will focus on the musical traditions of this Appalachian region, including bluegrass, old-time music, African-American traditions, blues, gospel, ballads, and occupational songs. Musicians will range from master practitioners like National Heritage Award winner Ralph Blizard to up-and-coming performers like 18-year-old West Virginia fiddler Jake Krack. At a picking area on the Mall, Festival visitors and participants are invited to play music and dance together. The Festival also will feature the dance forms, foodways, storytelling, and work lore that inspire and sustain the region.

As a volunteer you will work closely with our staff as well as with Festival participants of various backgrounds. You may be asked to work directly with participants, assist stage managers, sell programs, help with the audio/visual recording of performances and presentations, or lend a hand with the many administrative duties essential to the success of the Festival. These are only a few of the opportunities available to volunteers.

If you would like to volunteer, please complete the enclosed questionnaire and return it to me by Tuesday, June 3. (Receipt by June 3 will allow us to make assignments before orientation; after the 3rd, assignments will have to be made at orientation.) Please note that we assign jobs in the order we receive your applications; you can best assure your preferred placement by returning your requests quickly. If you have questions or comments, please contact me by telephone at 202.275.2003 or by email at [email protected]. A volunteer orientation will be held on Sunday, June 22, at which time there will be a tour of the site, staff introductions, and meetings with chief and fellow volunteers. As many of you know, volunteers are vital to the success of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. We are fortunate to have a large number of people who return each year to volunteer - some of you for 20-25 years! - and we welcome new volunteers each year as well. Thank you for your support of the Festival, and I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Tasha Coleman Volunteer Coordinator