The Online Catalog allows searching and browsing of information about the Florida State Archives’ holdings of over 48,000 cubic feet of state and local government records and historical manuscripts. The catalog provides descriptions of over 3,400 collections and lists the contents of containers and folders in many of those collections. For assistance with accessing and using State Archives collections, call our Reference Staff at 850.245.6719 or email us at archives@dos.myflorida.com.
Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs. Florida Folklife Archive
Title, Dates:
Folklife Apprenticeship Program fieldwork, 1983-2008, 2010.
Amount:
14 cubic ft. 77 MiniDiscs 33 audio tapes
Medium Included:
photographs photo slides videotapes audiotapes
Organization/Arrangement:
Organized by general type of material (files and cassettes). Chronological by year, then alphabetical by name of master artist.
Restrictions:
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
Legislation in 1979 (79-322, SB 1208) transferred the Florida Folk Arts component of the Stephen Foster Memorial to the Florida Department of State. Operating as the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs from ca. 1985 until 1995, the Bureau coordinated the annual Florida Folk Festival and directed such programs as Folk Arts Apprenticeships, Folk Arts in Education, Folk Heritage awards, annual research surveys and numerous other projects and programs. From 1995 through June 30, 2021, the renamed and reorganized Florida Folklife Program continued the majority of these operations from within the Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Historic Preservation in Tallahassee. During the 1995 reorganization, the State Archives of Florida acquired the Florida Folklife Collection from the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs’ previously maintained Florida Folklife Archives. Legislation in 2021 (2021-71, L. O. F., HB 909) transferred the Florida Folklife Program and its operations from the Division of Historical Resources to the newly renamed Division of Arts and Culture, previously the Division of Cultural Resources, effective July 1, 2021. The program is charged to "identify, research, interpret, and present Florida folk arts, artists, performers, folklore, traditions, customs, and cultural heritage and make folk cultural resources and folklife projects available throughout the state."
The Florida Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program began in 1983 and was designed to recognize and encourage the folk arts in Florida. It provided individuals, who had demonstrated an aptitude for, and a commitment to a particular folk art, with an opportunity to study intensively over an extended period with expert practitioners of the art. To apply, interested masters and apprentices filed a joint application after discussing the potential apprenticeship. The decision to award an apprenticeship was based on the apprentice's involvement in the community that supported the tradition, authenticity of the master's work and relevance of the tradition to Florida's folklife.
The apprenticeships covered a number of folk arts and practices. Among these were saddlemaking, Japanese dance, Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement), leather working, Cuban dance, Nicaraguan dance, cow whip making, gospel steel guitar playing, Scottish bagpipe playing, Greek bagpipe playing, fiddle playing, white oak basket weaving, palmetto weaving, Nigerian dancing, wheelwrighting, coach making and Everglades skiff making.
The apprenticeships lasted one year, with the exception of 1992 to 1994, and a booklet was produced for each year's program. The booklets discuss the master artist, their art, the apprentices and what each expects to get out of the particular program.
Summary:
This series primarily contains the fieldwork for the Florida Folk Art / Folklife Apprenticeship Program. This fieldwork includes contact sheets, photographs, slides, audio tapes (cassette, DAT and one 8-track) and video tapes of the masters and/or the apprentices practicing the particular folk art. Also included in this series are copies of the annual program booklets.
Finding Aids:
Searchable index to images and sound recordings available online at http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/ #
Additional Physical Form:
Reproduction Note:
Location of Originals/Duplicates:
Associated Materials:
Language Notes:
Ownership/Custodial History:
Publication Note:
Selected images available online at http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/
Basket making Florida Folk art Florida Folk artists Florida Apprentices Florida Folk dancing Florida Saddlery. Boatbuilding Florida Folk music Florida Whips Florida Wheelwrights Florida Folklife.
Machine-readable artifacts. aat Field notes. aat Photographs. aat Slides. aat Audio tapes. aat Negatives. aat
for detailed listing.