A unit of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, that promotes the
understanding and continuity of contemporary grass-roots cultures in the United States
and abroad. The Smithsonian Institution is a unique public trust founded in 1846 and
dedicated to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge” among humankind. The
Smithsonian has a staff of 6,000 employees and includes sixteen national museums, a
zoological park, research institutes for astrophysics and tropical biology, a press, two
national magazines, various membership organizations, a traveling exhibition service,
and a variety of other programs.
The Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies produces the
Festival of American Folklife, Smithsonian-Folkways Recordings, exhibitions,
documentary films and videos, symposiums, and educational materials. The Center
conducts ethnographic- and cultural-policy-oriented research, maintains a documentary
archival collection, and provides educational and research opportunities. The Center
works with other Smithsonian museums and programs, has a scholarly and technical
staff, and relies upon hundreds of contract scholars, temporary employees, and
volunteers. Activities are funded through federal appropriations, Smithsonian trust funds,
grants and contracts, donations, and product and concessions sales. Center projects have
received scholarly, public, and critical acclaim; its work on issues and methods of
cultural representation has provided a model for other organizations and activities in the
United States and internationally.
Prior to 1992, the Center was known as the Office of Folklife Programs. The office,
established in 1976 with Ralph Rinzler as director, grew out of the Festival of American
Folklife unit of the Smithsonian’s Division of Performing Arts. Peter Seitel was director
from 1982–1988, and Richard Kurin became acting director and then director in 1990.
The Festival of American Folklife is a research-based living cultural exhibition, held
annually since 1967 outdoors on the National Mall of the United States for two weeks
around the Fourth of July holiday. Over the years, it has brought more than 16,000
musicians, artists, performers, craftspeople, workers, cooks, storytellers, and others from
fifty-three nations, every region of the United States, scores of ethnic groups, more than
100 American Indian groups, and more than sixty occupational groups to the National
Mall to demonstrate their skills, knowledge, and artistry. The festival has energized local
and regional tradition bearers, provided a training ground for two generations of public
folklorists, and inspired many other cultural programs.
In 1987 the Smithsonian acquired Folkways Records, founded and operated by Moses
Asch for four decades. Folkways activities are coordinated by the center as a “museum of
sound,” a business, and an archive under the direction of Anthony Seeger. The archive
includes the Moses and Francis Asch Collection; documentation from the festival, its
research, and special projects; and the Cook and Paradon record collections. Every one of
the more than 2,000 Folkways tides is available on audio cassette through a mail-order
archival service.
Smithsonian/Folkways produces new releases and reissues on CD, LP, and cassette.
New releases grow out of festival and research projects, such as a multivolume set on
Indonesia done in collaboration with the Indonesia Performing Arts Society sponsored by
the Ford Foundation, and recent recordings on U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, New Mexico,
Hawaii, and the former Soviet Union. Special recordings based on festival programs—
Rhythm and Blues and Musics of Struggle—have been joindy produced with Columbia
Records. A benefit album to support the acquisition of Folkways Recordings, Folkways:
A Vision Shared, produced with Columbia Records, won a 1988 Grammy Award. Other
products include audio recordings to accompany scholarly books, booklets for a thirtyvolume Video Anthology of World Music and Dance, a children’s series of recordings and
videos, a folk-music instructional video series, CD-I, and CD-ROM educational
materials.
The Center produces Smithsonian museum and traveling folklife exhibits—Southern
Pottery; Celebrations; Aditi: A Celebration of Life; Stand by Me: African American
Expressive Culture in Philadelphia; Grand Generation; and Workers at the White House.
The Center produces Smithsonian Folklife Studies, a series of documentary films and
monographs. It sponsors symposiums on key cultural issues with collaborating
institutions—for example, Other Orients: Soviet and American Views of Muslim Society,
and Seeds of the Past, Seeds of Commerce, and Seeds of Industry—held for the Columbus
Quincentenary. The Center has also coproduced television and radio programs,
documentary films like Marjorie Hunt and Paul Wagner’s Academy Award-winning The
Stone Carvers (1985), and popular books like the Smithsonian Folklife Cookbook (1991).
The Center provides curatorial and production assistance for special projects, among
them the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, concerts for the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan
presidential inaugurals, and America’s Reunion on the Mall, a festival for the
inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
Center programs and research focus on issues of cultural representation, conservation,
and creativity. The Center’s most distinctive contribution has been the development of a
dialogue and collaboration with the people whose traditions and aspirations are
represented. Current collaborative research projects on the African diaspora, cognate
American and Eurasian cultures, and the cultural landscape of Jerusalem are indicative of
interest and range. Scholarly staff draw upon folklore, cultural anthropology,
ethnomusicology, social history, ethnic and area studies, and cover various American and
world regions. Recent examples of scholarship include Thomas Vennum’s monographs
on Wild Rice among the Ojibway and Lacrosse: Little Brother of War and Olivia
Cadaval’s exhibit on Tirarlo al la Calle (Taking to the Streets). Several scholars serve as
faculty at local universities. Some have won prestigious recognition, such as Anthony Seeger, winner of the American Musicological Society’s prize for best monograph,
former president of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and 1993 inductee into the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Center is a vehicle for increased staff
diversity in the Smithsonian, as former staff head important other offices and programs; it
also has a distinguished outside advisory group.
The Center offers a variety of educational programs. Fellowships allow predoctoral,
postdoctoral and senior post-doctoral scholars to work at the Center. One recent Fellow
completed a textbook on American folk music; another completed a new
Smithsonian/Folkways Recording. The Center’s projects annually involve hundreds of
volunteers and about a dozen or so college interns. A community-scholars program,
initiated as a Summer Folklore Institute, brings lay scholars to Washington, DC, to
discuss their work, meet with public officials, increase skills, and learn about other
cultural organizations. Educational programs for primary and secondary schools include
curriculum kits on folklife, teacher-training materials and courses, and cooperative
instructional programming with selected schools.
Richard Kurin