The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 5 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: Bermuda Connections
Series 3: Masters of the Building Arts
Series 4: New York City at the Smithsonian
Series 5: Special Events
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
More so than monuments, buildings, museum-quality artifacts, historical facts, or even valued performances, the Festival celebrates the people who make them, hold them in esteem, and debate their meaning. The Festival represents a wonderful range and diversity of voices and human experiences. The 2001 Festival featured programs on the building arts, New York City, and Bermuda.
The Masters of the Building Arts program brought together expert craftspeople in the building trades, including many who use traditional arts to restore our monuments and historic sites. Among them visitors could find many of the artisans who have worked on the Washington Monument, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Acoma Pueblo, historic Charleston, and Native Hawaiian sites - all important monuments protected by the National Park Service, the Smithsonian's partner in the Festival since 1973.
The New York City program highlighted the way in which that city has become the global village. Broadway, the fashion industry, the Apollo Theater, and Wall Street were all featured. So too was the vital cultural creativity that has come about as people from the world over have settled in New York. The Festival provided a contemporary look at immigration and its importance to our culture. The fact that so many people from every corner of the earth have come to our shores through New York in order to build their lives and our nation has inspired generations, and the Festival offered the opportunity to encounter those communities and experience their cultural heritage.
Bermuda, though separated from the United States by hundreds of miles of ocean, has long played a role in our history. Bermuda was settled by colonists on their way to Jamestown, Virginia, where they rescued starving survivors of that colony. ln the last century, Bermuda, always entrepreneurial and self-reliant, has developed tourism and financial industries in a symbiotic relationship with the United States. Bermudians foster strong community connections within their own island society, as well as those of commerce, culture, and cooperation with the people of nations whose shores touch the Atlantic Ocean. Festival visitors could transport themselves to a tiny island of Bermuda within the Festival site on the National Mall, experiencing its cultural traditions through interaction with Bermudian participants.
The Festival always depends on solid research. Several dozen Bermudian scholars, educators, and artists working with Smithsonian curator Diana Baird N'Diaye interviewed hundreds of tradition-bearers, documenting everything from gardening to house-building to music-making. That documentary archive of tapes, photographs, field notes, and videos constitutes a snapshot of Bermudian culture and provided the basis for the Festival program, as well as a resource for the future. A similar effort took place New York City, where folklorist Nancy Groce directed the curatorial work - selecting the traditions to feature at the Festival and the people to present them - aided by cultural organizations in the city, among them the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, City Lore, and the Museum of American Financial History, a Smithsonian affiliate. Masters of the Building Arts grew from the vision of the Smithsonian's Marjorie Hunt, guided by her own long-term research on the stone carvers of the National Cathedral.
The 2001 Festival took place during two five-day weeks (June 27-July 1 and July 4-8) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 9th Street and 13th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured three programs, with several special events including the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert.
The 2001 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; keynote essays provided background on the Festival and on each of the programs.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Richard Kurin, Director; Richard Kennedy, Deputy Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Daniel Sheehy, Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordngs; James Early, Director, Cultural Heritage Policy; Olivia Cadaval, Chair, Research & Education; Jon Kertzer, Project Director, GlobalSound Network; D.A. Sonneborn, Assistant Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist Emeritus; Betty J. Belanus, Nancy Groce, Marjorie Hunt, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Peter Seitel, Cynthia Vidaurri, Curators, Folklorists, Education and Cultural Specialists; Frank Proschan, Project Director, Save Our Sounds; Carla M. Borden, Program/Publications Manager; John W. Franklin, Program Manager; Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Stephanie Smith, Assistant Archivist; Arlene L. Reiniger, Program Specialist; Charlie Weber, Media Specialist; Frank Bechter, Roland Freeman, Ivan Karp, Alan Lomax, Worth Long, Rene Lopez, Jemima Pierre, Kate Rinzler, Ana Patricia Rodriguez, Fellows & Research Associates
Folklife Advisory Council
Jane Beck, Kurt Dewhurst, Anthony Gittens, Pat Jasper, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Judy Mitoma, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Gilbert Sprauve, Jack Tchen, Ricardo Trimillos
Folkways Advisory Board
Michael Asch, Phyllis Barney, Don DeVito, Ella Jenkins,
National Park Service
Denis P. Galvin, Acting Director; Jack Schamp, Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://doi.org/10.25573/data.21771155.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
