Tuesday, April 9, 2024

CFC's Folk Art Exhibits On Parade

 Since 2016 Catskills Folk Connection has been committed to curating and producing an exhibit of Catskills folk art every two years.  (One year's exhibit slipped into the following year, but was soon made up.)   They have taken place in different venues in Delaware and Sullivan Counties, and each has focused on folk art produced in s single, different medium.  Below are examples from each of the five exhibits from 2016 through the planned exhibit for 2024.  Plan to visit this year's exhibit, "Folk Art in Fiber", is taking place at the Delaware County Historical Association from October 11 through November 17,2024.  .  

 2016 "Growing Up to Brush": 

An Exhibit of Landscape Paintings

 at Roxbury Arts Group's Walt Meade Gallery 

   
                       
    "Spruceton, Mink Hollow" by Don Strausser                                 Farmscape "The Denver Store" by Nellie Bly Ballard

The paintings in this exhibit were by two artists.  One was Don Strausser, Westkill resident, and well-known musician, who painted on canvas, slate shingles, tools, an ironing board, and on shelf fungus.  Many of his paintings depicted known or inspirational views in the Catskills, others documented the change of seasons in fields "growing up to brush", and still others were imagined or painted from photographs.

The other artist was Nellie Bly Ballard, a Roxbury native, who was famous locally for painting portraits of farms and farm houses, and other features of the community such as covered bridges.  Some of her paintings are clearly not local and seem to resemble Currier and Ives-type calendar art.  Nellie was sometimes referred to as the "Grandma Moses of the Catskills."  Her farm portraits, especially ones painted a few year's apart of the same farm or valley, reveal the encroachment of raspberry bushes, goldenrod, and small trees ("brush") that will soon grow up to cover the hillsides in their succession to forest.   

2019 "Folk Art in Stone"

Exhibit at Erpf Center in collaboration with

The Catskills Center for Conservation and Development


  
"Little Guy" Trout carved by Richard McCormack            Miniature fireplace in stone & copper by
                                                                                             Mark Swanberry 

The Catskill Center's educator, Katie Palm, now Director of the Catskills Visitor Center's Mt. Tremper NY, contributed her exhibit expertise to plan the installation of "Folk Art in Stone" in the Erpf House center gallery.  Thank goodness the artists carried in their heavy works of art!

Mark Swanberry and Richard McCormack live in Schoharie County, both have stone landscaping businesses, and both create art with bluestone.  Richard tends to carve animals, fish and birds as outdoor sculptures and flat bluestone pained with scenes of vernacular houses on farms and i communities.  Mark carves some outdoor pieces, such as bird baths, but much of his work is smaller, including lanterns, reliefs, and clock faces.  These smaller, interior pieces show the influence of his future creations in copper, as you can see in the fiieback of his 5" tall "fireplace" candle holder.

2020 Folk Art in Wood

exhibited at Hanford Mills in their Learning Lab 

  
   "Owl" drawn with woodburning stylus               "Snow Goose" carved and painted by Joe Dibble
     by Kira Lendo.

In the year of the COVID pandemic, Catskills Folk Connection was fortunate to be invited to create our biannual exhibit at Hanford Mills Museum, an outdoor history museum dedicated to portraying life, and especially water power and woodworking, in Delaware County in the 19th and early 20th centuries,  Covid protocols prevented school groups from visiting, but the Mill's careful planning and precautions enabled the museum to offer limited visitation for adult and family groups.  Catskills Folk Connection benefited by having its exhibit open at the Mill for over 6 weeks in the fall of 202 when many other exhibit venues were still closed.    

Kira Lendo, from Ashland NY, developed her own way of drawing using a woodburning stylus to depict wildlife and sometimes flowering plants.  She pursues her art for her own satisfaction but sells it occasionally so she can make more.  Joe Dibble, of  Bovina Center, NY, fell in love with carved decoys and spent many years carving game birds, from woodcocks to swans.  His other passion is turkey hunting and he has developed his draughtsman skills with pen and ink, and with pencil and watercolors.  Two of his drawings of turkeys accompanied his game birds - and an unusual carving of a brown trout - to this exhibit.  

Other exhibitors were Gary Meade, of Fabulous Furnishings in Margaretville, who displayed unique furniture from local wood he processed at his sawmill; Chris Carey from Treadwell, who showed his banjo, handmade from local wood; Dane Scudder from Big Indian who brought a fiddle and a banjo made of gourds (from afar in W.Va.)  with wood from his family's farm in Halcott Center; and Joe Hewitt, New Kingston, and Ken Etts, Rixbury, who shared i presenting a whirly-gig type toy that when rubbed turns the propeller at its end.  In addition there were two displays of historical wood carvers, LaVern Kelley and Homer Benedict.   

2022 Folk Art in Metal
again at Hanford Mills Museum


  

John Jackson, Jefferson NY demonstrates how                An evocative small pieces of a sperm whale by traditional
hi creates his figures from tools and vehicle parts.           blacksmith, Lucas Novko, from Laurens, NY.

Once again, Catskills Folk connection's folk art exhibit benefitted from Hanford Mills Museum's public programming by holding its 2022 exhibit for six weeks, this time in the Old Mill building, a tall and rugged space perfect for art in metal.  Five artists displayed their work, starting with a wall piece by Mark Swanberry that showed a woodpile drawn on copper (repoussée) .  Mark prided other nature-themed copper wall pieces plus his signature hammered copper bowls.  Lucas Novko brought examples of traditional styles of polished and unpolished iron kitchen and table implements m the 19th century tradition.  He delights in adding slight innovations to tradition-bound designs and added pieces of his own design such as this whale. 

Other artists included John Jackson who is a master at seeing critters in something as simple as a hand mixer, and envisioning characters made from musical instruments who are them selves are shown playing other instruments.  His demonstration engaged his audience with his imagination as he acquainted them with the raw materials of his art and related it to the finished products on display.

Michael Radu, who has worked professionally casting metal art works for other artists, on his own time creates furniture using techniques he learned from his family's previous generation of metal workers.  But Michael favors a different style, unexpected in folk art: mid-20th century modern.  He brought a chair made of bent stainless steel pipes, with seat and back of Kevlar, and a circular glass table balanced and held together with taught wire.  This unusual folk art (that does not resemble folk "style") caught the eye of a visiting architect.

2024 "Delaware County Folk Art in Fiber"

Mark you calendars for "Delaware County Folk Art in Fiber" opening on October 11 at the Delaware County Historical Association, Delhi, NY, with many different types of fiber and textiles artists, plus weekend demonstrations of their craft and a three-session workshop on tapestry weaving.

For more information call Ginny Scheer, 607-326-4206 or 607-238-9162.  E-mail her at gscheer.mcs@gmail.com, and check this blog later.   

"Delaware County Folk Art in Fiber" is funded in part by a Delaware County Arts Grant, a program of the New York State Council\ on the Art, supported by Gov. Hochul and the NYS Legislature.    

     




  

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

On WIOX tonight, February 27 at 7 pm, Women in Folk Art

Join Ginny Scheer, folklorist and Executive Director of Catskills Folk Connection, on Catkills Folk to talk about "Anonymous Was A Woman", a book published in the 1970s, that still has insights for women today.  It was written by Mirra Bank, a documentary filmmaker who created a PBS special of the same name.  Learn about ordinary women's aesthetic and artistic accomplishments by listening at 91.3 FM or at www.wioxradio.org.  

To see some of the folk art Ginny will talk about deep this blog open on your laptop, on your computer, or on your cell phone and stay right here . We'll be looking at and discussing the quilt below and other woman-made folk art (in the article further below) and you'll be able to follow along.

See you on the radio!  (to quote Charles Osgood, the late radio and TV commentator who explored the America of ordinary people.) 

  


Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Folk Art Illuminates Past Lives of Women.

 

                                           

Tonight Tuesday February 13 at 7 p.m. on WIOX Community Radio (91.3. FM or www.wioxradio.org) Catskills Folk Connection's radio program Catskills Folk will initiate a discussion of a classic book,  "Anonymous Was A Woman" by Mirra Bank.  It was published in 1979 when Bank was beginning her career as a creator of documentary videos. She hsd just produced a PBS video documentary with the same title, and felt that she should share as a book the primary source materials on which she based the video documentary.  Folklorist Ginny Scheer will discuss the beginnig of the book tonight and will invite a limited number of listeners to appear on the air in two weeks on February 27 to give their insights into the rest of the book. Contact Ginny at 607-326-4206 or 607-238-9162 or gscheer.mcs@gmail.com if you would like to be a discussant..

Here are some of the primary sources, in both words and in images, of the folk art created by women in the 18th and 19th centuries.     


       
Lucy Perkins, Pastel Portrait by Sara Perkins

               

Diary of Elizabeth Fuller, 1791-1792








Sampler by Mary Antrim





Introduction to "Anonymous Was A Woman" by Mirra Bank



All illustrations and teexts above are for educational use only.  Plese do not copy or re-use.

Blog Emerging from Hibernation

 After we posted early in 2023 that Catskills Folk Connection had finally obtained its designation as a 501.c.3 non-proft, the blog was allowed to stay as it was, having docmented many years of programming while CFC was a fiscally sponsored project.  The blog is still available for you to scroll through past programs and look at collections of photographs ( In the Gallery see Halloween projects from 2013 and from before CFC was even founded.)  Today, February 13 at 7 p.m., the blog will assume a new use - illustrating audio programs on CFC's radio show, Catskills Folk either at 91.3 FM or at www.wioxradio.org. The topic is a book called "Anonymous Was A Woman", and the blog will share some illustrations and some quotes from the book.  Join us to hear how folk art can be a primary source for understanding passt lives.

While we got away from using the blog, we did begin to work with Facebook. Our page has some unusual pathways, so feel free to give us feedback on how you were able to find it.  Note: If you find a profile photo of people dancing, you have the old Facebook page.  If you see Joe Dibble's beautifully carved brown trout at the top of the Facebook page, you have arrived! 

Later this winter, watch for the launch of Catskills Folk Connection's new website that will releive this blog of announcing events.  It will be a very simple, homemade website for now, perhaps only a landing page.  We will use it to make sure you know when square dances are scheduled, when CFC will sponsor food demonstrations by Catskills tradition bearers, when this fall's exhibit, Folk Art in Fiber, will take place, and when we might be holding our lecture series, Catskills Folk Lyceum,  Last year's Lyceum featured two presentations: a talk by Diane Galusha about the experiencs of enslaved Africans in Delaware County, and a panel of Native American speakers and language teachers who discussed the revitalization of their languages and then taught us a few words in Seneca, Mohawk and  Northern Cheyenne.  We hope to gain funding to present a follow up Lyceum this year featuring the next generation of Native language teachers from public and tribal schools. 

But don't watch this blog for event announcements. If you don't find the website just yet, or if you want to convey your experience with CFC's Facebook presence, feel free to contact folklorist Ginny Scheer, 607-326-4206 or 607-238-9162; or gscheer.mcs@gmail.com.  

Monday, May 8, 2023

Catskills Folk Connection Is a Real Non-Profit!


 As of January 17 Catskills Folk Connection has its own 501c3 designation as a no-profit organization. Thanks to CFC's friend, Cary Goodman, we were able to navigate the application process, first for an EIN number and then the non-profit designation. No longer will CFC be a fiscally-sponsored project, dependent on another organization's non-profit status.  We are very grateful to the Roxbury Arts Group, and before them the Manhattan Country School, for serving as our fiscal sponsors.  They provided pracitcal support as well as esssential advice, and they referred to us to important organizational services. 

Our transition to being a free-standing organization will be gradual, because at least one of our grants was applied for while we were still a project of Roxbury Arts Group.  Plus we are finding that there are other organizations eager to work with us.  For example, the Catskill Center for Conervation and Development has offered to rent us desk space, and eventually a room, to serve as CFC's office with access to the library for storage and for Board meetings  

New York Folklore, the statewide organization for folk heritage, is at present including Catskills Folk Connection in its appplications for far-reaching grants to promote traditional arts and artists in the Southern Tier of the state.  These initiatives range from designing interpretive wayfinding on the region's waterways, to studies of communities' and artists' resilience in the face of climate change, to digitization of local archives.  We will hear about those later this year.

For now, Catskills Folk Connection's Executive Director, Virginia Scheer, is getting the new non-profit corporation registered with a number of state agencies and funders.  The Board of Trustees is meeting to finalize corporate policies and the board structure (committees etc.).  This year's program is falling into place.  In 2023 our program will look like the project we have always been and hopefully in 2024 will shed its project skin and will begin to develop the programmatic characteristics of a full-fledged organization.

In May Catskills Folk Connection will sponsor its first in-person square dance of the year, featuring the Tremperskill Boys with caller Dane Scudder, and guest caller Earl Pardini.  It will take place on Saturday, May 20 at 7 pm at the Halcott Grange, 264 Greene Co. Route 3, Fleischmanns NY 12430.  (Note: the Halcott Grange is in Halcott Center, north of Fleischmanns, reached by Del. Co. Route 37 that becomes Greene Co Route 3. Use Fleischmanns for the town address on GPS or mapping services.)

June 10 & 11 Catskills Folk Connection will be at the Meredith Dairy Fest with information about our programs, and demonstrations that may include local foodways and possibly a guest appearance by a local musician.

June 17 at 7 pm is CFC's second square dance, this one at the Walton Grange. on Stockton Avenue in Walton.

In July, on the 15th in the afternoon, the dance will be held at the Catskills Visitor Center on State Route 28 in Mt. Tremper , 

In August, the Catskills Folk Lyceum, CFC's lecture series, plans to present a roundtable with a panel of Native American language instuctors to discuss increasing their nation's fluency in their native languages and to engage the audience in a bit of language leearning.  Tentative date is August 13 and tentative location is the Bovina Community Center, Bovina Center, NY.  

In September, CFC plans to host another festival booth, this one at the Cauliflower Festival, where we hope to feature demonstrations of regional ethnic groups' foodways.

Dances are being planned for August, September and October.  Watch this space, your e-mail Inbox, your postal mailbox, or your local newspaper for announcements of time and  place.  All events will be announced on our radio program Catskills Folk, alternate Tuesdays at 7 pm (for example, May 9 and May 23) on WIOX, broadcast at 91.3 FM and streamed on wioxradio.org.  

See you at a square dance, at a festival, or at the Lyceum!

For more information consult this blog, or contact Ginny Scheer, 607-326-4206, or gscheer.mcs@gmail.com.  Use this e-mail address to ask for e-mail announcements of programs.

Catkills Folk Connectio is supported by the Roxbury Arts Group, and is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts Folk Art Program, by Gov. Hochul and the NYS Legislature, by Action & Vision Grants from Humanities NY and by the O'Connor Foundation. 








   

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Link November 19 On-line Discussion

 Catskills Traditional Music and Dance

November 19, 2 pm to 4 pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4140851861

If "Control - Click" does not take you to the meeting site, 

Copy and paste the link into the [https:] field at the top of your page,

then click at the end of the URL.  

Join Catskills Folk Connection on Saturday 

to discuss the future of Catskills traditional music and dance

Resources, open discussion, plan a future in-person event!

For more information, or help attending

 gscheer.mcs@gmail.com 

607-326-4206

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Symposium Will be an On-Line Discussion This Year

Saturday November 19  

on Zoom    2 pm - 4 pm  FREE!

    It's not all square dancing in the Catskills!

The in-person Symposium that Catskills Folk Connection had hoped to present this month has been changed to an on-line event.  It will be a discussion, as planned, about Catskills traditional music and dance. Missing will be the in-person jam, the potluck supper, and the in-person square dance. The change was necessitated by fund restrictions and caution about Covid rates of infection and vaccination.    

The two hours of discussion (with breaks) should allow time for a lively conversation among dancers, musicians, dance organizers, folklorists, and cultural organizations about the current status of traditional music and dance in the Catskills.  By the end of the meeting we hope to have a consensus about what is needed for Catskills traditional music and dance to thrive in our region.  

Catskills Folk Connection's folklorist, Ginny Scheer, will host the meeting and will begin with a short video clip in recognition of the late Hilt and Stella Kelly, as a starting point for the open discussion.  Audience members may wish to talk about what is happening in their music and dance lives, or they may wish to focus immediately on the question about the future of traditional music and dance in the Catskills. 

Some audience members may have something to share, such as a short oral presentation, or materials such as a page or a photo.  If you think you'd like to share, please contact Ginny Scheer www.gscheer.mcs@gmail.com or 607-326-4206 as soon as possible and submit materials by Sunday, November 13. 

We are expecting musicians and dancers to attend from a number of genres that share the larger Catskills audience. Possible areas we might recommend for enrichment may be about performance opportunities and venues or about centralized marketing.  Or we may wish to discuss the need for archiving materials about past music and dance, or we may decide to emphasize education to involve younger members of our region's population.

Come join the discussion!  Share your experience in music and dance in the Catskills.  Advise Catskills Folk Connection how it might grow to meet the needs of Catskills traditional music and dance in the future.    

Contact:  Ginny Scheer, www.gscheer.mcs@gmail.com  607-326-4206

Catskills Folk Connection is sponsored by the Roxbury Arts Group and is funded by the New York State Council on the Arts Folk Art Program, by Gov. Hochul and the NYS Legislature, by Action and Vision Grants from HumanitiesNY, and by the O'Connor Foundation.  

  


        








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