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Folklife Center News, Volume V Number 1 (January 1982)

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Folklife Center News, Volume V Number 1 (January 1982) January 1982 The Library ofCongress, Washington, D.C. Volume V, Number 1 FOLKLIFE GRANT TO AND THE FEDERAL ELDERLY CYLINDER In retrospect 1981 was PROJECT a year in which the role of the elderly in society and The American Folklife particularly their role in Center has been awarded the maintenance of the a grant of $15,000 by the country's cultural heritage L. J. Skaggs and Mary C. was a focus ofnational in­ Skaggs Foundation of terest and a reiterating Oakland, California for theme of Folklife Center the continuing work of activities. the Federal Cylinder Proj­ The 1981 White House ect. Conference on Aging of­ The L. J. Skaggs and ficially opened at the Sher­ Mary C. Skaggs Founda­ aton Washington Hotel tion is the first private on November 30 with a foundation to designate keynote address by Rich­ Folklore/Folklife as a sep­ ard S. Schweiker, Secre­ arate funding category. tary of the U.S. Depart­ The category was set up ment of Health and in 1980, and, since that Human Services, to a ple­ Leisurely conversation near Windsor Locks, Conn., 1942. Farm Security Adminis­ time, the foundation has nary conference session tration photograph Uy John Collier, Prints and Photographs Division. From the awarded approximately a attended by some 2,200 "Generation to Generation" exhibit. dozen grants under the delegates and 1,200 offi­ heading. Seven grants cial observers. The four-day program consummated a series of were awarded for calendar year 1982, totalling $70,500. They activities--community forums, mini conferences, and technical went to such institutions as the Center for the Study of Com­ committee meetings--set in motion by congressional legislation parative Folklore and Mythology at the University ofCalifornia, passed in 1978. Los Angeles for the continuing work of setting up a Visual The delegates and official observers assembled in Washing­ Media Archive: the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in ton to participate in committee meetings to discuss a wide range San Francisco to fund the position ofa stafffolklorist to coordi­ of topics such as the economy of an aging population, housing nate all folklife programming for the Federal Parks Department alternatives, and older Americans as a continuing resource. in the area; and the Los Angeles organization Saving and Pre­ Although cultural issues were not highlighted in the formal serving Arts and Cultural Environments (SPACES) for their agenda, cultural events complemented the program. Over a project to locate, document, and preserve American folk art Continued on page 9 Continued on page 3 of judging seemed inconsistent if not the National Endowment for the Arts downright biased. So I should have has instituted a series of National Heri­ FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS been delighted when, as I began to cor­ tage Awards which accomplishes these same purposes. But our American ver­ a quarterly publication ofthe respond with people interested in fid­ dling and fiddlers' contests from other sion of the idea, while emphasizing the American FolJUife Center parts of the country, I found that there honor, tends toplay down the certifica­ at the was a strong movement to make the tion, particularly insofar as it might judging for the contests more system­ seem an exclusive certification. It is Library ofCongress atic, using point systems for specifically wonderful to honor a blues singer, for defined characteristics of "good" fid­ example, but problematic to suggest Alan jabbour, Director dling, and more objective, using devices that any particular blues singer is for­ Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director such as sequestering the judges so that mally designated as more worthy than they could not see who was playing. Far another blues singer. Furthermore, Elena Bradunas from being delighted, however, I most Americans would squirm at the Carl Fleischhauer Folklife Specialists found the trend toward this kind of idea that blues as an artistic form is systematic judging disquieting. Would being given formal certification as Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Researcher the new and rigorously applied stan­ more important than, say, spirituals. Eleanor Sreb, Executive Assistant dards foster only one kind of fiddling Nor should it be suggested thatanyone Brett Topping, Writer-Editor style?' Would regional variety be elimi­ ethnic group or region has permanent Doris Craig, Secretary nated under the guise of objectivity? I claim to a certified artistic slot. We love Tel: 202 287-6590 now wished sentimentally for the old to honor an artist, an art, a skill, ora way hit-or-miss system, complete with fla­ of life, but we balk at the idea of giving grant favoritism for the local musicians. any person or any form of cultural ex­ Archive ofFolk Culture At least with the old system nobody's pression permanent hierarchical rank­ artistic integrity was fundamentally ing in our civilization. joseph C. Hickerson, Head Gerald E. Parsons, jr., Reference Librarian challenged; if you did not win, you just Yet another form of this curious and Patricia M. Markland, Indexer-Secretary blamed the crooked judges! murky issue has surfaced for us at the Sebastian LoCurto, Staff Assistant These thoughts came to mind re­ Folklife Center with the undertaking of Tel: 202 287-5510 cently when I was shown a list of local a formal study in cooperation with the folk artists which had been prepared Department of the Interior which ad­ Washington, D.C. for use by community cultural agencies, dresses the question of "intangible ele­ and which was presented with a cover ments of culture" within the context of sheet explaining that all the artists listed Federal historic preservation responsi­ Managing editor: Brett Topping were certified as authentic folk artists. bilities. Since one technique in the his­ All of us who work closely with folk toric preservation movement is the culture fret from time to time that pub­ employment of systems ofdesignation, lic programs presenting folk arts fail to complete with a formal apparatus for locate and present the best representa­ nomination, evaluation, and certifica­ DIRECTOR'S COLUMN tives of folk tradition available in their tion, the question naturally arose locality, or that things are presented as whether such systems might not be Back in the 1960s I frequented a folk arts which are not folk arts at all. applied to intangible cultural tradi­ number of old time fiddlers' conven­ Yet when I saw a list which labeled par­ tions. If there can be a National Regis­ tions in Virginia and North Carolina. ticular artists as certified, I felt that ter of Historic Places, why not create a They offered prizes for fiddle playing, uneasy sense coming over me that I re­ parallel National Register for distin­ usually decided upon by two or three called regarding the objective systems guished storytellers, oldtime fiddlers, judges selected from an informal roster for judging old time fiddling. Half of quilters, or whatever? It has been of local devotees (generally not perfor­ me longed for the guidance ofa formal interesting to me to discover, in the pro­ mers themselves) who were willing to list, but the other half rebelled against cess of soliciting ideas and reactions take on the onerous responsibility. any system that certified some at the from a broad r~nge ofconsultants, that When the awards were announced at expense ofothers. there is virtually no support for institut­ the end of the fiddlers' convention, it The same uneasiness seems to over­ ing such a formal, hierarchical system was not unusual for the prize to be take me when I am told in glowing of designation for arts and artists. awarded to someone from the immedi­ terms about the Japanese system for Apparently many other Americans ate community, which inevitably en­ designating certain master artists as share my sense of disquiet when the gendered intense grumbling on the "living national treasures." The idea of idea of honoring begins to verge into part of other fiddlers who entered the honoring them, encouraging them, permanent, official designations. contest. I suppose I grumbled, too, and rewarding them for their mainte­ All these instances seem to point to a since I was sometimes a contestant as nance of traditional arts seems wonder­ dilemma of sorts which we face in try­ well as an observer, and the standards ful; indeed, the Folk Arts Program of ing to encourage folk culture and 2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS deepen the awareness of it with the selected-by chance a favorite of Mr. CYLINDER PROJECT wider American public. We work in a Ford's--was no more thought of as the Continuedfrom page 1 nation which in its expression of best fiddler than I am, yet the process environments. As Philip M. Jelley, Sec­ national consciousness uses hierarchi­ itself was quite stimulating to the world retary and Foundation Manager, ex­ cal ranking as a means of praise: I think of fiddling and probably contributed in plained, the foundation has not seen of "We're Number One!" and Miss some measure to the revived interest in the award of grants in this category as a America and the Top Forty as manifes­ old time fiddling in the earlier part of vehicle for preserving specific folk cul­ tations of this inclination. Yet none of this century. A grayer civilization might turallandmarks or artifacts; rather, the these designations has governmental have concluded that one cannot select grants are made to projects that help to sanction, and none of them is perma­ "world champions" in 'a nation where delineate the Folklore/Folklife field nent. The very reason for shouting cultural diversity is a preeminent fact of contribute to scholarship on America~ "We're Number One!" is a nagging un­ life. But that's no fun: instead, America folk culture, or further the production certainty about the truth of the matter.
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