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Welcome to the New York Folklore Society

Serving NY's folklore and folk arts & traditional arts and culture since 1944

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The New York Folklore Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Eileen Condon has been named the new Acquisitions Editor for Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. She will replace Dr. Felicia McMahon who held the post from 2003-2008.



Guide to NY STATE TRADITIONAL MUSIC
In 2009, the New York Folklore Society has expanded its website to include a special section for about NYS musicians and their music. Check it out and watch it grow!

ERIE CANALWAY ARTS INVENTORYThe New York Folklore Society was selected to begin a targeted inventory of the arts in the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor in 2009. The project is part of the Heritage-in-Arts Initiative begun in 2008. A team of folklorists and historians, as well as a photographer, will visit Canalway Corridor communities and regions gathering examples of the rich artistic and cultural expression inspired by and resulting from the development of the Corridor’s historic canals. For additional information on the arts inventory or the Heritage-in-Arts Initiative, contact Hannah Blake at 518-237-7000, ext. 202, or view the project webpage. We welcome your feedback and participation!

TO HONOR GRACE HUDOWALSKI
the Grace Peak Committee of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers is proposing to rename one of the peaks of the Dix Range in the Adirondacks “Grace Peak.” Read more about Grace, the first female president of the New York Folklore Society, in the Director’s Column of the upcoming
Voices.



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FOLK ARTS - New York Traditions Gallery
our on-line
gallery shop
for folk art,
music, books, and handmade gifts!

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Gallery of NY Traditions


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AVAILABLE ON-LINE IN OUR GALLERY SHOP

Carriers of The Words
Carriers of The Words
Kontiwennenhá:wi

Cover of Sweetwater Passage by the Barefoot Boys
Sweetwater Passage
The Barefoot Boys


Cover of  Mountain Air by Dan Berggren
Mountain Air
Dan Berggren
Traditional and Original Music of the Adirondacks

Old Stone Walls: Catskill Land and Lore
Old Stone Walls: Catskill Land and Lore
by Norman J. Van Valkenburgh


Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns
Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns
Early Settlers and Their Traditions
by William J. O’Hern


Catskill Mountain Bluestone by Alf Evers, Robert Titus, and Tim Weidner
Catskill Mountain Bluestone
by Alf Evers, Robert Titus, and Tim Weidner


CSNYS logo


CYC logo
Donate to our work on-line by visiting
ChooseYourCharity.net,
the donor education and information website of the Council of Community Services of New York State, Inc. (CCSNYS).



New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008
Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org


     
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Thank you to all of our fans and supporters! It was a wonderful night of music in the GE Theater at Proctors. See photos from the event.

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Gala Benefit Concert and Voices Release Party

Voices—Roots and Branches of New York Folk Music
Friday, May 29, 2009
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Discover the New York Folklore Society
Cover of Spring Summer 2009 Voices
Become a member to receive VOICES!

Visit our Action advocacy page to get the latest news and ways you can make sure your voice is heard.



I read every issue of Voices. The taxpayers are hollering, and the state’s contribution to this wonderful little magazine has been drastically cut. Those of us who read it all the way through have to all chip in.Pete Seeger, musician and activist, Beacon, New York


January 26, 2009

New York Folklore Society Challenge

Dear Friends of the New York Folklore Society,

Many of you have received a number of emails and letters recently regarding Governor Paterson’s proposed cut to the 2008-09 New York State Council on the Arts budget, and its potentially devastating effect on over 500 organizations in New York that have pending applications for support.

The Folklore Society is one of those organizations; hence, we have not received any general operating funds for 2009. We are taking every measure possible to trim expenses, including reducing staff hours significantly. Our need is real and immediate, and will affect our programs in 2009 if the budget cut is not overturned.

We are fortunate to have a dedicated staff and board who are willing to persevere through very difficult times, as well as expending extra efforts to advocate strongly in Albany for our cause. Members are also showing strong support with early renewals, renewing at higher levels, and are responding with letters and calls to our legislators. (Advocacy letter templates and addresses are available here.) For all of these efforts, thank you.

I would like to add a further incentive to encourage your additional support. In honor of my grandparents and the irreplaceable family traditions they passed on to me, I am offering a Board President’s Challenge Appeal to all friends and members of the Society. For every $2 donated to this Appeal, I will donate $1, up to $5,000. This will apply to all donations received in 2009; just indicate “Challenge Appeal” on your check or donation form.

You can make a tax-deductible donation through Paypal, using your Visa or Mastercard or Paypal account — just click the button below, enter the donation amount, click “Update Total” and your payment information.

I have had the honor of working in a State that I believe has best support of traditional arts anywhere, exemplified by more than sixty years of leadership by the Folklore Society, enriched by the support of the New York State Council on the Arts’ Folk Arts Program, and enlivened daily by folklore colleagues, traditional artists, and avid supporters. I thank you for joining me in maintaining this living legacy.

Karen Canning
Traditional Arts Program Director
Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council (GO ART!)
201 East Main St.
Batavia, NY 14020





“It was great to see the folk arts community come out in force on Arts Day! Following the joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly Arts Committees, over 128 people attended a Folk Arts reception sponsored by the New York Folklore Society and co-hosted by Senator Hugh Farley (44th Senate District, Republican) and Assemblyman John McEneny (104th Assembly District, Democrat)...Many thanks to Ellen McHale, Director of the New York Folklore Society, and all of the organizers.”—Kate Koperski, Director, Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University
See photos from the reception.


Folk and Community Arts Organizations: Creating, Producing and Managing (Intro or Adv)

Group Study, 4 credits – Hartsdale Unit (HVC), Empire State College,
Instructor: Dr. Cathy Ragland
Meeting dates for the study are: 10/16, 10/23, 11/1 (Saturday), 11/6, 11/13, 12/4, and 12/18. Times are 6-8 p.m., except the Saturday session (10 a.m.-3 p.m.)


Co-sponsored with the New York Folklore Society, this Empire State College study is designed for students interested in non-profit community arts and folk arts programming, presenting, researching (field work methods), documenting, archiving and managing. It offers aomprehensive look at how arts organizations operate, the services they provide local communities and the public at large, the wide range of programs they create and produce, the research and documentation that informs their work, how they educate youth about the arts and local communities, and grant-writing and fund-raising.

Registration is extended until September 5. Students can register as non-matriculated students.

Read COURSE DESCRIPTION

SEE PHOTOS FROM THE ESC/NYFS SUMMER COURSE
Exploring Place: Documenting Your Community’s Culture and Traditions

Congratulations, Faye!

At the American Folklore Society annual meeting in October, it was announced that Felicia R. McMahon won the Chicago Folklore Prize for her book, Not Just Child’s Play: Emerging Tradition and the Lost Boys of Sudan. The Chicago Folklore Prize is awarded each year for the best book-length work of folklore scholarship for the year, and it’s the oldest, and most prestigious international award recognizing excellence in folklore scholarship. Faye, a research professor of anthropology at Syracuse University and Voices acquisitions editor from 2003-2008, wrote this book to raise money for its subjects, a community of Didinga Sudanese refugees who settled in Syracuse. She is donating her royalties from the book to the Lost Boys. According to Faye, “I think this book is just my way of lending a helping hand. My degree is in folklore and folk art, so what can I do? ... So this was my way of being able to extend a little kindness, and I’m hoping more people will get involved in this kind of work. I just gained so much from knowing newcomers to our city and our region.” (Read more.)



listen icon LISTEN to Voices—Hear the sounds of "sacred steel" and merengue típico and Celtic fiddle music. Look for the this icon to hear MP3s.



Find out about our Programs & Services
Worth the Wait!
New York Folklore Journal
Vol. 25, Nos. 1-4, 1999
Cover of NewYork Folklore v25

The 1999 Journal is a reprinting of some of the best public sector writing from 1985-1995, with an introductory essay by Robert Baron. Other essays include the work of Karen Taussig-Lux, I. Sheldon Posen, Joyce Ice, Douglas DeNatale, Kate Koperski, Anna (Chairetakis) Wood, and others.

If you would like to receive a copy and you weren’t a member of the New York Folklore Society in 1999, they are for sale as individual copies in our on-line gallery bookstore for $10.00/copy plus $1.50 postage and handling.
The New York Folklore Society remains in the forefront of a creative movement. The impulse in 1945 to publish the folklore of New York State for the people of the state is continued today through this publication Voices. The editors of this publication encourage your submission of scholarly writing, as well as nonfiction, fiction, poetry, memoir, and other forms of creative literature.—Ellen McHale, Director




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The New York Folklore Society is the recipient of a 2005/2006 award from the Documentary Heritage Program of the NYS Archives. As funded, the project is to support the arrangement and description of folklore collections using a "circuit rider" approach...read more about our Archives projects




Visit Our Folk Arts Gallery in Schenectady or online
Handcarved wood green wing teal duck decoy by Jim Neenan, a woodcarver from Staten Island.
Green Wing Teal Duck




Sample our Publications
NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE
Self-Management for Folk Artists :
A Guide for Traditional Artists and Performers in New York

by Patricia Atkinson Wells

ORDER from our on-line gallery bookstore.


Shop of for Museums -- support NYFS when you shop on-lineCAN’T FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR at New York Traditions -- NYFS on-line shop for folk arts, handmade gifts, folk music CDs and books, our on-line shop, but still want to contribute to NYFS while you shop on-line — here’s how!
At Shop for Museums, you can shop at your other favorite on-line stores, and at no extra cost to you, you can have a portion of your purchase donated to the New York Folklore Society. You can register to track your donations or shop as a guest. Select NYFS and have fun shopping! And thank you for your support!


Learn more about folklore and connect to other organizations

Folklore in Archives:
A Guide to Describing Folklore and Folklife Materials
by James Corsaro and
Karen Taussig-Lux
A companion to
Working with Folk Materials in New York State
Order both from our on-line gallery bookstore.

Contact us

Donate to New York Folklore Society
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NYSCA logo The New York Folklore Society’s programs are made possible in part with public funds from the Folk Arts Program of the New York State Council on the Arts , a state agency. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts , the New York State Documentary Heritage Program, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Fund for Folk Culture. NEA logo

© 2009, 2008-1998 New York Folklore Society
Last updated June 10, 2009
Original website design by Ariadne’s Thread, Ithaca, N.Y.