A state-wide non-profit organization, the Vermont Folklife Center is “dedicated to preserving and presenting the folk arts and cultural traditions of Vermont and the surrounding region.”
Activities
Vermont Folklife Center works to celebrate and preserve the culture of the northeast through media (including video and oral history projects, photography and books, radio series); education; in-house and traveling museum exhibits; consulting services; and events that teach people about traditions or how to participate in traditional activities. The Center is also engaged in teaching the practices of ethnography, offering workshops and resources to help others collect oral histories and other records of northern culture.
Relevant Project(s)
- Visit’n is the Center’s annual anthology of interviews and oral histories of Vermonters. The material is available to the public in the form of written summaries and transcripts, original recordings, and biographical information about the people profiled.
- Discovering Community is a week-long institute for educators, which provides training on ethnographic research and in using documentary tools like digital audio and video equipment, and video or still image tools. The Center also offers Field Research Workshops throughout the year to give people hands-on training in ethnographic field work.
- Traditional Arts Workshops and Apprenticeships teach the public about historical New England skills and arts and give individuals an opportunity to practice those arts under the guidance of an experienced craftsperson.
Relevant Methodologies
The Center’s ethnographic techniques are fairly typical, including a mix of high-tech (digital audio and video recording and archiving) and low-tech (storytelling and more traditional archiving methods). The Center’s unique niche comes in educating the general public to use these techniques and to contribute to a growing body of work and knowledge about the unique culture of northern New England.
Region
Vermont and the northern forest region
More Information
http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org
info@vermontfolklifecenter.org
3 Court Street, PO Box 442
Middlebury, VT 05753
802-388-4964 (phone)