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Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
The state of Minnesota is home to many traditions, communities, and forms of expressive culture. In this post, we highlight collection materials from the American Folklife Center pertaining to the folklife and cultural heritage of the North Star State.
Posted in: Cultural Heritage, Fieldwork, Folk Art, Folksong, Foodways, Minnesota, Norwegian Americans, Photographs
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
In this COVID Recollections post, we continue to commemorate the 5th anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a pandemic by highlighting the COVID-19 Street Art Archive—an online, archival collection of street art related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This post features an interview with Dr. Heather Shirey (Professor of Art History, University of St. Thomas) and Dr. Todd Lawrence (Associate Professor of English, University of St. Thomas), who created the COVID-19 Street Art archive. Shirey and Lawrence discuss their inspiration for the archive, their favorite items in the collection, and their thoughts on archiving art that is intended to be temporary. The COVID-19 Street Art Archive is just one of many collections available on the American Folklife Center's COVID-19 Research Guide. Find more at https://guides.loc.gov/covid-19-folklife.
Posted in: Archival Practice, COVID-19 American History Project, COVID-19 pandemic, Folk Art, Jokes and Humor, Material Culture
Posted by: Meg Nicholas
In an attempt to inspire herself and others to finish handmade gifts for the holidays, Folklife Specialist Meg Nicholas takes readers on a quick tour of hand-crafted items documented in the Center’s field survey collections.
Posted in: Collection Highlight, Crafts, Folk Art, Material Culture, Quilts, Textile arts
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
The digital records collection of the AIDS Memorial Quilt--the largest folk arts project in history commemorating those lost to HIV/AIDS--was published on the Library of Congress' website on December 1 (World AIDS Day 2024). This milestone marks over ten years of collaboration between the American Folklife Center, the National AIDS Memorial (NAM), and the NAMES Project Foundation to preserve and steward the AIDS Memorial Quilt Records Collection. In this post, Nicole Saylor, Director of the American Folklife Center, recounts the history of this collaboration and the years of work that led to the online publication.
Posted in: AFC Events, AFC History, AIDS Memorial Quilt, Civil Rights, Folk Art, LGBTQ, Quilts, U.S. Congress
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
The American Folklife Center recently acquired the collection of Tom Pich—an acclaimed photographer of traditional artists. Pich is best known for his photographs of recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship—the nation's highest honor in the traditional arts presented annually by the National Endowment for the Arts. In this celebratory post, AFC Folklife Specialist Nancy Groce highlights the importance of this acquisition, contextualizes Tom Pich's work, and details the beauty of his photographs.
Posted in: Acquisitions, Folk Art, NEA National Heritage Fellowship, Photographs
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
In this post, Nancy Groce (Senior Folklife Specialist, American Folklife Center) highlights a new exhibition organized by Los Herederos -- a 2023 recipient of a Community Collections Grant (CCG) from the American Folklife Center -- that celebrates the cultural diversity of Queens, New York.
Posted in: Community Collections Grants, Cultural Heritage, Exhibits, Folk Art, Oral History, Uncategorized
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
In June 2024, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi had a special viewing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Records stewarded by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. This post details Pelosi's visit to the Library, her previous work to advocate for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and the work American Folklife Center staff to steward these valuable collections.
Posted in: AIDS Memorial Quilt, Folk Art, LGBTQ, Quilts, U.S. Congress, Uncategorized
Posted by: Michelle Stefano
Below is an excerpt from a post on the Library’s Of the People blog by Folklife Specialist Guha Shankar who interviews Community Collections Grant recipient Professor Tammy Greer (and team) about their project, “And We are Still Here:” Stories of Resilience and Sustainability from Houma Culture Bearers in Louisiana. This post is part of the Of the …
Posted in: AFC Awards, Community Collections Grants, Crafts, Fieldwork, Folk Art, Louisiana, Material Culture, Native American History, Native Americans/indigenous communities
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
The following is a guest blog post co-authored by U.S. Air Force veteran, AnnMarie Halterman, who is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Uniting US, and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Ehren Tool. This is the first in a four-part guest series featuring military veteran artists who are members of Uniting US, a veteran-focused nonprofit arts …
Posted in: Crafts, Disablity, Folk Art, Folk Music, Folksong, Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Thomas Jefferson Building, Veterans History Project