Oregon Folklife Network awarded $55,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts

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EUGENE, Ore. – (Dec. 28, 2018) – The University of Oregon’s Oregon Folklife Network is set to receive a $55,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Announced as part of the endowment’s $27 million funding package for fiscal year 2019, the Oregon grant will support a folklife survey on Oregon’s north and central coast.

“OFN is so pleased to have another year of NEA support for our documentation of Oregon’s living cultural heritage,” said Riki Saltzman, Oregon Folklife Networks’s executive director.

Art Works is the Arts Endowment’s principal grantmaking program. The agency received 1,605 Art Works applications for this round of grantmaking and will award 972 grants in this category.

“The arts enhance our communities and our lives, and we look forward to seeing these projects take place throughout the country, giving Americans opportunities to learn, to create, to heal, and to celebrate,” said Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

With support from the grant, the Oregon Folklife Network will work with veteran folklorist Douglas Manger to identify folk and traditional artists in the Northwest and Central Oregon Coast counties of Clatsop, Tillamook, and Lincoln, as well as the coastal sections of Lane and Douglas counties. Manger will also mentor emerging folklorists as they document regional and ethnic folklore from a range of heritage groups including but not limited to Asian and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Latinos, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and Europeans as well as occupational folklife such as chainsaw carving, hunting, dairy farming, commercial fishing, clamming, oystering, shrimping, and other waterways traditions. Folklorists will also document foodways, music, storytelling, and other relevant folk expressions.

OFN’s statewide survey has so far identified over 355 folk and traditional artists in 28 counties as well as at the Klamath Tribes, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, the Burns Paiute, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. OFN partners with local and state organizations and Tribes to refer tradition bearers and folk artists for programs in parks, arts organizations, libraries, or festivals. We also preserve this documentation in our archives.

OFN invites recommendations for individuals who should be documented as part of the project. Recommendations can be submitted to by email to Riki Saltzman, riki@uoregon.edu, or Emily West, eafanado@uoregon.edu, or by phone to 541-346-3820.

For more information on the National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Categories: Newsletter Articles, Statewide Folklife Survey Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

riki

Rachelle H. (Riki) Saltzman, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in the University of Oregon’s Folklore & Public Culture program and a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. From 2012-2022, she served as OFN’s Executive Director and continued as a consultant for special projects through 2022. From 2020-22, she was also the staff folklorist for Bend, Oregon’s High Desert Museum where she conducted ethnographic fieldwork, coordinated public programs, and collaborated on a documentary short with indigenous food gatherers “First Foods: Roots and Berries with Warm Springs Traditional Gatherers” https://highdesertmuseum.org/food-sovereignty-educator-resource/. At OFN, she worked with communities, Tribes, and individuals to develop collaborative partnerships involving folk arts and artists. She oversaw the World Learning sponsored and US Dept of State funded international culture exchange project, Exploring Indigeneity, Place, Traditions, and Transmission; development of Oregon’s Culture Keepers Roster; coordination of Oregon Folk Arts in the Parks and a Folk Arts series at the High Desert Museum; and development of staff folklorist positions at 2 Oregon museums. She continues to mentor students and teach classes for UO’s Folklore and Public Culture program. Saltzman has served on Travel Oregon’s AgriTourism Leadership Working Group, the Century Farm and Ranch Board, and on the Oregon Encyclopedia Board. From 1995-2012, Saltzman was the Folklife Coordinator for the Iowa Arts Council, where she developed award-winning, online folklife curricula and co-produced Iowa Roots with Iowa Public Radio. Since 1982, Saltzman has worked at private non-profit and state agencies in 9 states to direct public programs, organize conferences, curate exhibits, and conduct research. She has been awarded grants from federal, state, and non-profit organizations. Saltzman, who obtained her Ph.D. in Anthropology (Folklore) from the University of Texas at Austin, has written numerous public folklore publications as well as peer-reviewed articles in professional journals and books. A Fellow of the American Folklore Society, she has served on the executive boards of the American Folklore Society and the Association for the Study of Food & Society. She is the author of A Lark for the Sake of Their Country: the 1926 General Strike volunteers in folklore and memory (2012, Manchester University Press), recipient of the 2012 Wayland D. Hand Prize (American Folklore Society) for Outstanding Book in Folklore and History. She is also the editor of Pussy Hats, Politics, and Public Protest (2020, University Press of Mississippi), recipient of the 2021 Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prize (American Folklore Society) for superior work on women’s traditional, vernacular, or local culture and/or feminist theory and folklore. Her most recent article, "Hey Folklorists!" FisherPoets and Public Folklorists—Practicing Partnership, appears in the Journal of Folklore and Education.

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