Archive: Around Town

The History Center in Tompkins County was recently awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts Folk Arts Program to fund a year-long effort to document and celebrate three local festivals: the Ithaca Festival of the Arts, the Trumansburg Fair, and Groton Olde Home Days.

Tentatively titled 'Interpreting Community Folklife at Tompkins County's Fairs and Festivals,' this project will capture the experiences of community leaders, performers, vendors, and festival-goers involved in each event.

Collaborating with event organizers, Project Folklorist Hannah Davis, will identify key participants and traditions, then document each via a series of interviews. At each event, Davis will join collaborators to share and discuss her documentation in a community conversation, during which audience members will be invited to share their own experiences. A culminating public event will be held at The History Center in October to showcase footage and photographs from Davis's interviews alongside demonstrations or performances by longtime festival participants.

History Center Director Rod Howe says, "This project represents an important new folklife direction for the Center, one that is closely tied to the planning and development of the Tompkins Center for History and Culture. Through this program, the Center aims to build stronger and deeper linkages with the diverse cultural identities that exist in our county."

Davis previously conducted fieldwork in Tompkins County in 2016 on behalf of the New York Folklore Society while carrying out the organization's Upstate Folklife Survey and Program Development Initiative, a collaboration with the New York State Council on the Arts. Now, as the Society's Upstate Regional Representative, Davis organizes public programming and documents traditional cultural practices across Western and Central New York. She currently serves on the board of the Middle Atlantic Folklife Association.

v14i7