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Archival description
S0001 · Series · 1985-2014
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

Since the inception of the South Florida Folklife Center, individual staff members and the Center itself have been actively involved in folklife-related programs, projects, and activities. Materials generated from the activities of external organizations and entities are organized as the Miscellaneous Materials Series. Also in this series are projects that were initiated but not pursued, materials generated by activities in which the Center had input but primary were the concern of other departments or groups within HistoryMiami, and those of short duration that were not linked to folklife research. Additional materials pertain to multiple projects.

S0002 · Series · 1985
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

In 1984 the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, the Dade County Council of the Arts and Sciences, and the Historical Association of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami) began a concerted effort to attract support for a folklife program in South Florida. Though not able to obtain funding that year, in 1985 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs a grant to conduct the first folklife survey to ever be undertaken in South Florida. The project goal was to ascertain what expressive traditions were being practiced in South Florida’s diverse ethnic communities.

The Miami-Dade Folklife Survey identified 200 folk artists in the Miami area during the three-month life of the survey. This effort provided the impetus for the creation of the South Florida Folklife Center at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Conducted by Tina Bucuvalas, Nancy Nusz, and Laurie Sommers; the survey covered a wide range of skills and art forms primarily from the Haitian, Jamaican, Mexican, Bahamian, Cuban and Jewish communities. As part of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant, the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and the Dade County Council of Arts and Sciences agreed to sponsor a folklife festival featuring the artists discovered during the survey.

Original materials from this project are held by the State Archives of Florida. Materials include field notes, images, audiotapes, videotapes, and related materials. Many of these items have been digitized and are available at the Florida Memory Project website.

S0003 · Series · 1986-1987
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

During 1986 and 1987, The South Florida Folklife Center of The Historical Association of Southern Florida (HistoryMiami) conducted a second survey to document folk arts in the Miami-Dade area and to locate additional artists who might participate in the Traditions:  The South Florida Folk Festival, an annual spring festival that was instituted in 1986. Tina Bucuvalas conducted the fieldwork for this project. The Center sought and received funding through a National Endowment for the Arts to support both the Traditions Festival and the Folk Arts in the Schools Program (see Series 5: Traditions and Series 6: Folk Arts in the Schools Program for additional information). Various artists contacted during the survey were selected to participate in the second Traditions Festival and the Folk Arts in the Schools Program (see Series 5: Traditions: The South Florida Folk Festival and Series 6: Folk Arts in the Schools Program for additional information about the artists).

During the same 1986-1987 time period the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, Folk Art in Education, conducted a survey of artists in Palm Beach County. Information, photographic images, and other materials are in the collections of HistoryMiami. The fieldworker for this project, Jan Rosenberg, also participated in the Folk Art in Education program and the Jewish Folk Arts project conducted by the Historical Association of Southern Florida.

S0004 · Series · 1986 May 23-25
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

In 1952, Mrs. Ada Holding Miller, President of the National Federation of Music Clubs, suggested to Mrs. (W.A.) Lillian Saunders of White Springs that the grounds of the nearby Stephen Foster Memorial (now known as Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park) would be an ideal setting to hold a folk festival. The Florida Folk Festival Association, organized in 1953, was officially sponsored by the Florida Folk Festival Association for more than 10 years. After the Florida Department of State established the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs in White Springs in 1976, the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs coordinated the Festival and continued in that role until 1995. At that time, the Florida Folklife Program was re-located to Tallahassee and the Museum of Florida History undertook the general festival administration though the Florida Folklife Program. In 2002, the Florida Park Service assumed full responsibility for coordinating and producing the Annual Florida Folk Festival, beginning with the 50th anniversary presentation that year.

The Florida Folk Festival takes place annually at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center in White Springs, Hamilton County, in northern Florida. During the 34[sup]th[/sup] Annual Florida Folk Festival, which took place in 1986, a special space, the Miami-Dade Folklife Area, was set aside to showcase Miami-Dade artists. This was the first time that Dade County had any significant representation at the festival. The area included space for craft demonstrations and the Folklife Stage where artists made presentations. The approximately 20 artists showcased in the Miami-Dade Folklife Area were asked to participate based on their earlier performances at the first annual Traditions:  The South Florida Folklife Festival held in Miami in March. The participants in Traditions had in turn been chosen from among the artists discovered during fieldwork for the 1985 Miami-Dade Folklife Survey conducted by Lauri Sommers, Tina Bucuvalas, and Nancy Nusz.

Original documents including images and audio recordings chronicling activities in the Miami-Dade Folklife Area are on deposit at the State Archives of Florida in Tallahassee.  These audio tapes and images have been digitized and made available through the Florida Memory Project. [url=http://www.Floridamemory.com/]http://www.Floridamemory.com/[/url]  The South Florida Folklife Collection at HistoryMiami has copies of the recordings on audiocassettes.

S0005 · Series · 1986-1988
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

The Historical Museum of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami), the Dade County Council of Arts and Sciences, and the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, with the assistance of the Florida Arts Council, staged the first annual “South Florida Folklife Festival” on March 22 and 23, 1986, on the Plaza at the Metro-Dade Cultural Center. Showcasing more artists than 30 folk artists representing a cross section of ethnic groups in Dade County, the festival featured food, music, and craft demonstrations. Approximately 20 of these artists were invited to participate in the 34[sup]th[/sup] Annual Florida Folklife Festival (Florida Folk Festival) held at White Springs in northern Florida where they occupied the Metro-Dade Folklife area at the festival. This was the first time that Dade County had any significant representation at the festival.

The second annual “Traditions: The South Florida Folklife Festival” was held Saturday and Sunday, March 28 and 29, 1987, on the Metro-Dade Cultural Center Plaza. Not only did the festival emphasize the relevance of the work of folk artists practicing in South Florida, but it also served to educate the public about their existence. The festival was divided into five areas: foodways, crafts, musical main stage, workshop stage, and vendors.

From April through August of 1987, Tina Bucuvalas, Folklife Curator of the Folklife Center of the Historical Association of Southern Florida, conducted fieldwork for the third annual festival of traditional arts which focused on Latin and Caribbean music in southeast Florida. Florida State University ethnomusicologist Dr. Dale Olsen assisted in field research, analyzed, and evaluated the musical groups discovered during Bucuvalas’s fieldwork and made recommendations for inclusion in the planned festival. He also wrote a short essay on Latin and Caribbean music for publication in the festival guide.

S0006 · Series · 1987-1989
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

The Historical Association of Southern Florida and Dade County Public Schools initiated the Folk Arts in the Schools Program in order to create an appreciation for traditional arts among the various Hispanic, Afro-American, Caribbean, Asian, European, and other folk groups in the county. The Program also endeavored to bolster students’ aesthetic sensibilities and self-esteem by presenting quality examples of traditional arts created by skilled practitioners from their cultural group’ and develop students’ knowledge of folk arts as distinct from art forms normally taught in the schools. Schools with large ethnic and minority populations were targeted for participation. The Program’s initial pilot project developed curriculum materials based on the fieldwork and bibliographic research amassed by the Traditions: The South Florida Folk Festival and was specifically tailored to the needs of the Haitian/Latino/African-American population of Edison Senior High School in Miami. The project was seen as providing cultural enrichment activities and counteracting the low morale of students from families that had recently immigrated to the United States and those living below the poverty level.

Schools contracted with The Historical Association of Southern Florida for her services of their folklife curator, Tina Bucuvalas, to create and present the Folk Arts in the Schools Program and to lend support in other ways. The Associate secured a grant from the Arts in Education Program of the Florida Arts Council to provide funding for this program. The project received funding through an Arts in Education grant and as a component of National Endowment for the Arts grant that also helped to fund Traditions: The South Florida Folk Festival (see grant application, Box 3, Folder 10). In 1987 folklife curator Tina Bucuvalas wrote a teacher guide for a folk arts course and collaborated with teacher Connie Favret to create exercises aimed at elementary and secondary students. They conducted classroom sessions and a teacher workshop.

Harvest Festival - 1989-1992
S0007 · Series · 1989-1992
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

The Harvest Festival was held annually at the Dade County Youth Fairground at Tamiami Park from 1976 through 2007. One of the purposes of the festival was to acquaint South Floridians with history and local traditional culture. The event attracted a general, multi-ethnic, family-oriented audience.

The Historical Association of Southern Florida (HASF) provided the historical reenactment and folklife components of the Festival as an educational service. In the Traditions Folklife section, folklorists who have conducted field research in South Florida present local folk artists including demonstrations of material and verbal arts, music, and dance.

S0008 · Series · 1988-1989
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

The Jewish people of South Florida, one of the largest Jewish communities outside of New York, retain a great many religious and secular traditions. The Miami-Dade Folklife Survey of 1985, conducted by the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, uncovered a number of Jewish folk artists in the Miami region. To explore more fully the Jewish traditions being practiced in South Florida, in 1988 HASF initiated a field research project. After obtaining a grant for the project, “Jewish Folk Arts in South Florida,” from the Florida Endowment for the Humanities (through the Florida Arts Council). The Association contracted with Jan Rosenberg to conduct field research and a document study. Interviews, notes, tape recordings, photography, field logs, and other research products were generated by the project. Rosenberg also produced a summary report and a publishable essay on aspects of Jewish folk culture in Dade and Broward counties.

Jewish artists who were contacted during the survey were featured in the Traditions Folklife component of the annual Harvest Festival (1988 November 19-20). The museum engaged some of these folk artists including Uri Goldsmith, a scribe who produces ketubahs, Jewish marriage contracts, in its sponsored program, “Folk Arts in the Schools” (1989 April 1-June 5) Goldsmith also represented South Florida’s folklife artists at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs (1989 May 26-28). The Historical Museum also hosted “A Collection of Jewish Traditional Arts” on Sunday, July 30, 1989, to showcase the talents of practicing folk artists identified by the survey. The folk arts identified through the project were an integral part of a February 1990 exhibit, “Tropical Traditions: The Folk Life of South Florida.”

S0009 · Series · 1988-1990
Part of South Florida Folklife Collection - 1985-2014

The Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami is known as a center for Haitian immigrants. Haitian art is a complex tradition with African roots, and the street art tradition thrives in Little Haiti. To document the storefront painted murals and signs that characterize the business district and artists who created them, the Folklife Center conducted a research project during 1988 and 1989. This program was also called Sign Art in Little Haiti. The project developed into a material folk culture exhibit called [i]Sign of the Times: Folk Art in Miami's Little Haiti[/i], which was on display at Historical Museum of Southern Florida from February 2 to 28, 1990.