Tag: public

OFN symposium: a debrief

This past Friday (11/19/2010) proved to be a successful and energizing day, with the Oregon Folklife Network moving into a chrysallis phase of development via a symposium held at the Many Nations Longhouse on the University of Oregon campus. Titled “Public Folklore in the 21st Century,” the symposium focused on entertaining questions on, insights into, and critical examination of the shape a state-wide public folklore effort should take here and now. An array of local & regional panelists and active attendees anchored the proceedings in immediate context of Oregon, while special guest Bill Ivey brought a national-policy frame to things (often from the 20,000-foot perspective, as he noted periodically…). This combination of distal and proximal, macro and micro, created a dynamic intellectual climate in which we pursued collective analysis of several key issues/themes:

  • the relationship between ‘non-profit’ and ‘for-profit’ models for cultural programming
  • developing sustainable structures that support arts & culture (maybe the issue, according to Devon Leger of Hearth Music)
  • the terminological salad: folklife, folk art, culture, art, or expressive life (Bill Ivey’s suggestion)—which is best for describing the “what” of our efforts?
  • the difficult necessity of including as many voices/constituencies/interests as possible in developing the strategies, projects, and goals of the OFN such that it serves all communities of the state

An invited panel of arts & culture leaders started the day off, by responding to prompts and offering perspectives on the challenges and possibilities in front of the OFN. Discussion and audience response to this panel bled into a working lunch, during which each table chewed on food and a key question distributed by symposium organizers; my tablemates and I batted around ideas for an OFN mission as well as strategies for generating state-wide engagement. After a short table-reporting session, we moved into the final panel for the day: a student-centered discussion about the relationship between academic training and community-engaged work that emerges at the nexus of folklore and arts management. I moderated this panel, but the four students—two representing the Arts Administration Program, two representing the Folklore Program—did all the work, providing compelling examples from their own research or coursework that gave everyone plenty to think about. To wrap up the day, Bill Ivey presented a short series of synthesizing observations/remarks; the overall theme of these (and the day as well) was: the network-model put into place via the establishment of the OFN is unique and potentially very powerful, so let’s make good on it!

As an experiment, and in order to encourage an avenue of participation that enabled those in the room as well as those far away to partake, a Twitter stream drawing on the official hashtag (#ofn2010) ran on one of the walls as a projection. You can access an archive of it here…While most of the tweets were from people in the room, this stream nonetheless provided a meeting-within-a-meeting of sorts, a meta-commentary on the events and a simultaneous exploration of how/where/why emerging tech can play a role in arts and culture work. Look for video from the symposium in the near future on the OFN site.