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Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs. Florida Folklife Archive
Title, Dates:
Florida Folk Festival fieldwork, program planning, and documentation files, 1983-2002.
Amount:
7.25 cubic ft.
Medium Included:
photographs audiotapes
Organization/Arrangement:
Chronological by year, then by record type (e.g. photos, slides, program drafts).
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."
Summary:
This series contains the records compiled by Folklife Bureau staff in researching and planning for the annual Florida Folk Festival, particularly the folklife areas that provide a different theme for each year's Folk Festival. Photographs, slides, audio tapes, field notes, informant information sheets, and one video tape document fieldwork carried out by Bureau staff, including identifying, contacting, and interviewing informants and inviting selected informants to participate as demonstrators or performers at the Folk Festival. The series also includes proposals for and overviews of folklife area themes; photographs and slides of events at the Folk Festivals; and drafts of text and proposed photographic illustrations for the program books distributed at each Folk Festival.
Folklife themes documented in this series included ethnic celebrations such as the Jewish observance of Purim, Greek Epiphany, and Caribbean Carnival; African-American and Anglo-Celtic-American traditions in Florida; the folklife of transportation, including customs, music, and crafts associated with saddlemaking, boat building, wheel making, and laying of railroad tracks; and the folklife of Central Florida.
The 79 audiotapes in this series document informant interviews with or musical performances by informants gathered during fieldwork or in performance at the Florida Folk Festival.
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:
Series S1612, Florida Folk Festival Planning and Publicity Records, contains related records regarding FolkFestival planning.
Language Notes:
Ownership/Custodial History:
Publication Note:
Selected images available online at http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/
for detailed listing.