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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 Sacred Steel Guitar Recording Project originated in 1992 when Florida Folklife Program folklorist Robert Stone discovered that several predominantly African American House of God churches in the St. Petersburg area were using steel guitars in their religious services. Realizing that this was a unique musical tradition, which Stone labeled "Sacred Steel", he convinced the Florida Folklife Program to apply for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA Grant # 93-5533-0178; $6900) to conduct fieldwork and create a music album for public dispersal. The aim of the project was to increase public awareness of the gospel steel guitar tradition, as well as document it for future generations. Matched with state funds, the grant period originally ran from October 1993 through October 1994, but was extended for another year. In that time Stone, along with sound engineer William Dudley, interviewed and recorded several steel guitarists in the St. Petersburg area. An album entitled "Sacred Steel" was released in 1995. It was then re-released through an agreement with Arhoolie Records in 1997.
Summary:
This series contains the administrative and research files for the Sacred Steel Guitar Recording Project, conducted by the Florida Folklife Program between 1993 and 1995. Included are grant applications and reports, interviews, budgets, and release forms, as well as audio recordings and field notes for the survey. Negatives of photographs taken during the survey are included in this series. Also included are materials related to the re-release of the album "Sacred Steel" by Arhoolie Records in 1997.
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Folder listing available. Searchable index to images and sound http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/folklife/
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For the complete Arhoolie Records 1997 album, see https://folkways.si.edu/sacred-steel/gospel/music/album/smithsonian. For other audio recordings of the Florida Folklife Program, see S 1576. Also see the online Florida Folklife Collection database at http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/folklife/. For the Sacred Steel Audio Cassette booklet, please see the State Library of Florida's State Publication Collection "Sacred steel traditional sacred African-American steel guitar music in Florida."
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Stone, Robert L.
Florida Folklife Program Florida. Dept. of State. Florida. Dept. of State. --Division of Historical Resources. National Endowment for the Arts
Folk music Florida African Americans Folklore. Florida Grants-in-aid Florida Performing arts Florida Arts Florida Folk artists Florida Folklife. Folklore Performance Florida Folklorists Florida Research grants Florida Religion.
Negatives. aat Machine-readable artifacts. aat Audio cassettes. aat Audio tapes. aat Interviews. aat Field notes. aat
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Pinellas County (Fla.)
for detailed listing.