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New York Folklore Events

Society for The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) for their 2014 Annual Conference: “Connecting the Past, Present, and Future”

New York Folklore Society to Partner with the Society for The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) for their 2014 Annual Conference: “Connecting the Past, Present, and Future,” April 23-26, 2014 at The Strong, Rochester, NY

TASP is a multidisciplinary organization that promotes the study of play, support and cooperate with other organizations having similar purposes, and organize meetings and publications that facilitate the sharing and dissemination of information related to the study of play. TASP’s broad focus includes many disciplines and scholarly interests, including folklore and anthropology.

With a shared interest in folklore and play, it is appropriate that the New York Folklore Society partner with The Association for the Study of Play for their 2014 conference.

NYFS members are invited to register for the conference at the TASP member rate. In honor of TASP’s 40th anniversary, they also invite New York Folklore Society participants to attend their 40th birthday bash.

NYFS will co-host the opening reception and present a panel, “The Folklore of Play,” on Thursday morning (April 24).

Register here for the Conference. When Registering, please mention the New York Folklore Society in the “Comments” section.

Farm and Field: The Rural Folk Arts of the Catskill Region

An exhibition of rural images, taken by photographer, Benjamin Halpern, will be on display at Delaware County Maple Weekends (March 23-23; 29-30).

“Farm and Field: The Rural Folk Arts of the Catskill Region” is one of the New York Folklore Society’s latest collaborative initiatives to document and showcase the rural folk arts of the Catskills region of New York State, especially those folk arts which relate to the community of farmers and agricultural workers in this region. The Catskills region continues to have a strong agricultural identity, with the dairy industry continuing to play a prominent role. By documenting and highlighting these ongoing activities, particularly as they are expressed in established and emerging artistic traditions, we hope to shine a light on this identity.

Photographs are made by Benjamin Halpern, a professional, who hails from Sullivan County, and whose childhood memories take him back to the dairy farms that once surrounded his home town. His objectives are to define the connection between the modern landscape and its people, and the cultural connection between the modern farmers and their agrarian roots.

Over the next several months, visitors and audience members can look forward to photographic exhibits, arts-based community activities, storytelling projects, and more.

The Exhibition, “Farm and Field,” will be showcased at the following locations: Shaver Hill Farm, Harpersfield; Brookside Maple, DeLancy; and Catskill Mountain Maple, Andes.

This collaborative project involves many partners. Photographer, Benjamin Halpern of Sullivan County has been a primary project architect who has supplied dozens of images of agriculture and its role on the landscapes of the Catskill region. Other partners include Catskills Folk Connection, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County, Delaware County Historical Association, and the Pine Hill Community Center. The project has been supported with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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New York Folklore Society presents The Art of Community Workshop

The New York Folklore Society, Building Cultural Bridges, The American Folklore Society, and New York State Council on the Arts presents the Art of Community Workshop: Building and Arts and Culture Support Network for Newcomer Artists in New York State workshop on Friday, May 17th from 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at the Utica Public Library, one block east of the Ithaca Commons at 401 E. State/MLK Jr. Street, 303 Genesee Street, Utica, NY 13501. You are invited to attend this workshop that will explore merging the arts with social services to better serve these newcomer communities and to enliven our community at large.

Upstate New York has become home to an ever-expanding community of refugees and immigrants from all over the world. Layering upon an already rich infrastructure of arts organizations, there is a great potential for an increasingly varied cultural landscape. Yet many of the artists from these communities struggle to maintain their expressive and cultural heritage traditions in the face of overwhelming and immediate needs as they adapt to their new environment.

Anybody concerned with the well-being of immigrant/refugee communities is welcome to attend, including but not limited to: refugee or immigrant artists, staff from cultural and community-based organizations and local art organizations, educators, funders, folklorists, staff from shops and galleries that market immigrant/refugee arts, refugee and immigrant service providers, and library staff.

The day-long workshop will present both national and local models of successful arts and social service collaborations which serve the focus communities. Also, newcomer artists will perform, demonstrate and talk about the importance of maintaining their cultural traditions in their new homeland. Drawing on personal experience and ideas generated by the presentations, participants will work together to explore possibilities for collaboration and to establish a local network for resource sharing. Spaces will be made available for participants to share information about their art forms or programs through printed materials. Interpretation services will be available.

You can register online at the New York Folklore Society.

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Spend Mother’s Day with Pete and Peggy Seeger

See Pete and Peggy Seeger at the Eighth Step Coffeehouse, Proctors Theater, Schenectady on Mother’s Day, Sunday May 12th in a special event to benefit the New York Folklore Society.

The New York Folklore Society is offering a special opportunity to attend the Pete and Peggy Seeger Concert on Sunday May 12th at Proctors Theater with a block of tickets that includes a Pre-Concert Reception And Dinner in the Fenimore Gallery at Proctors. The reception will take place from 5 – 6 p.m.. The Concert begins at 7 p.m. Dining includes specialties from the Indo-African diaspora.

Tickets for the dinner are $35, the dinner and show is $70. Friend of the Folklore Society are $100 which includes dinner, show, and Society membership – a $15.00 savings. Tickets may be purchased on-line.

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New York Folklore Society Annual Conference

The New York Folklore Society’s Annual Conference will be held at ArtsWestchester, 31 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY on Saturday, March 2nd. The day will begin at 11 a.m. with a preview of the Society’s newly designed website followed by the Society’s annual meeting. An optional lunch will be available (advanced reservations and a small fee required). Speakers and panel discussions begin at 1 p.m. on the theme Occupational Folklore: A conference to accompany the exhibit From Shore to Shore: Boat Builders and Boat Yards of Westchester and Long Island.

Admission is $15, $10 for NYFS Members, Students are Free. Attendees may register and RSVP online. More information on the event is available by calling (518) 346-7008.

Event Sponsors include ArtsWestchester, Long Island Traditions, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Folklore events in Eastern New York

Legends and Tales

The New York State Folklore Society is hosting Legends and Tales on November 12th at Binghamton University. The tentative schedule includes:

The Fabled and the Fabulous: Dawn Saliba of Binghamton University on “Shakespeare, Three Sisters and a Scottish King: The Witchlore of Macbeth as Influenced by King James’s Demonology;” Daniel Irving, of Binghamton University on “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had: Southern Mythology and the Precariousness of Performance;” and, Trisha Cowen of Binghamton University on “A New Perspective on Happily Ever After: Children Dying to Close the Portal Between Worlds.”

Legendary Transformations: Chris MacKowski of Binghamton University on “The Legend of Stonewall Jackson’s Arm;” Nick Hilbourn of Binghamton University on “The Stranger Upstairs: Disability Representation in Urban Horror Legends;” and Bambi Lodell of the State University of New York at Oneonta on “Mythic Elements in the Life and Legend of Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell.”

The Keynote Address, “Haunted Halls, Mansions, and Riverbanks: Legends of the Southern Tier” will be delivered by Dr. Elizabeth Tucker.

Other sessions include a reading by Novelist Jaimee Wriston Colbert from her work “Shark Girls,” “Folklore in Practice: Collecting Narratives after Disaster Strikes” with an esteemed panel of folklore professionals, and a closing session focusing on storytelling in performance with Milbre Burch, “Changing Skins: Folktales about Gender, Identity and Humanity.”

Milbre Burch is a grammy-nominated and internationally known storyteller. She is currently a graduate student in theater and folklore at the University of Missouri. Her performance, “Changing Skins” is informed by research on the wealth and persistence of gender-bending folktales and cultural expressions around the world. The tales — adapted from print collections by folklorists, anthropologists, linguists and literary scholars – are interwoven with personal observations of the social construction of gender, and notes on historical and contemporary thinking about the diversity of gender expressions.

For additional information and to register visit Legends and Tales.

Folk Arts in Education Development

The Society will also be presenting “Folk Arts in Education Development, a Workshop for Artists and Teachers” on Friday, October 21st from 8AM till 3:30PM at Celtic Hall, 430 New Karner Road, Albany, NY

The presentation will be led by Arts in Education Specialist Dr. Amanda Dargan of City Lore, Inc. along with featured artist Andes Manta.

Amanda Dargan holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the Arts in Education Director for City Lore, Inc., a folk arts organization in Manhattan. In a joint effort with the Bank Street College of Education, Amanda Dargan pioneered a program of staff development sessions and seminars for teachers, administrators, and artists on how to integrate cultural studies and the arts into the core curriculum. Through a national initiative, Amanda Dargan and Paddy Bowman of the National Task Force on Folk Arts in Education have offered these trainings on how to effectively and creatively use students’ and communities’ resources in classrooms throughout the United States.

The session provides a forum where teachers may meet traditional artists from a variety of backgrounds, discover resources available for arts in education, make curriculum connections to traditional arts, and enhance local learning possibilities.

The event is free, but registration is required. For further information, contact Lisa at the New York Folklore Society at 518-346-7008.

2011 Summer Community Documentation Program

In the summer of 2011, the New York Folklore Society teamed up with the Schoharie River Center, the Schenectady Job Training Agency and the Schenectady High School to offer a six
week Community Documentation Program. NYFS staff Lisa Overholser and Ellen McHale joined SRC staff John McKeeby, Scott Haddam, and Ben McKeeby in working with nineteen Schenectady teens to document Schenectady’s green spaces and the activities which occur in and around Schenectady’s parks and waterways. The successful program was given special notice by the Schenectady Job Training Agency for its innovation.

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New York Folklore Society events

The New York Folklore Society has a number of professional development opportunities taking place in the upcoming months, including two “Gatherings” for Latino Artists, a Folk Arts in Education workshop in Western New York, and the upcoming Folk Art Roundtable, and an invitation-only professional development opportunity for folklorists working within New York State.

Second Latino Artists’ Gathering: Challenges and Opportunities for Traditional Artists in Rural New York

The New York Folklore Society, in collaboration with Go Art!, will hold its second Latino Artists’ Gathering on March 19, 2011 At the Homestead Event Center, Batavia City Center, Batavia, New York. Supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, the gatherings provide an opportunity for Latino artists residing in non-metropolitan New York State to come together to discuss issues and solve common problems. March’s theme will be “Challenges and Opportunities for Traditional Artists in Rural New York”, and we will hear of some of the current initiatives being tried to link artists across distances.

The schedule for the Gathering includes a presentation by Arturo Zavala, who has done extensive research on cultural entrepreneurship and is, himself, a traditional musician; a panel discussion by Western New York community members on the solutions they employ in their own work, and participatory dance and crafts workshops. The day concludes with dance performances from Puerto Rico and Mexico, presented by Borinquen Dance Theater and Alma Latina. For further details or to discuss attending, please contact us at (518) 346-7008 or via E-mail.

New York Folklore Society Gallery to feature the work of Bernard Domingo

To recognize the month-long run of The Lion King at Proctors Theatre in downtown Schenectady, The New York Folklore Society is featuring the bead and wire animals of Bernard Domingo. Originally from Zimbabwe but now living in New York State, Bernard uses wire and glass beads to create whimsical animals as well as other items such as motorcycles and flowers. Bernard has specifically crafted a large lion and a water buffalo to tie in to the performance of the musical. These, and many more animals, will be on display through February and March 2011.

The Gallery of New York Folk Art is located at 133 Jay St., Schenectady, NY. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday 10:00 – 3:30.

New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Conference

The conference: Bridges to the Future, Empowerment through Collaboration in Cultural Heritage Tourism, A Cultural Heritage Tourism Symposium will take place at Colgate University, Friday, March 18th from 9 am to 3:30 pm at the Ho Science Center, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York.

Did you know that Cultural Heritage Travelers:

  • Consistently spend more money and linger longer than other travelers
  • In 2009 there were 118.3 million U.S. cultural heritage travelers
  • Cultural heritage travelers are dedicated shoppers at museum stores

This conference is for curators and staff of Cultural Heritage attractions, historical societies, and anyone who needs to drive more tourism business to their own front door. A conference fee of $30 per person includes the day’s events, luncheon, take home materials, refreshments, excellent presentations and time to network. Additional persons from the same business are only $25. Space restrictions
require that reservations be limited to the first 75 persons.

More information about the symposium will be forthcoming soon. Contact the New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Alliance by E-mail or at 315-521-3985.

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