By Riki Saltzman, Folklore Specialist and retired Executive Director When I started at OFN in the spring of 2012, I didn’t know much about Oregon, and I found that there hadn’t been a lot of recent fieldwork to identify and document folk and traditional artists. Under OFN’s then program manager, Emily Hartlerode (acting director), OFN… Continue reading →
This folklife fieldwork internship was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk & Traditional Arts program, to document culture keepers in the southern Oregon counties of Josephine, Jackson, and Douglas. Olivia Wilkinson has been working with OFN’s folklore specialist and retired executive director, Riki Saltzman, to learn how… Continue reading →
by Riki Saltzman, Folklore Specialist, OFN and Folklorist, High Desert Museum During this pandemic year, I’ve had the privilege of doing folklife fieldwork for two projects—OFN’s statewide folklife survey, taking place this year on Oregon’s southern coast, and the High Desert Museum’s central and eastern Oregon folklife documentation project. It’s been rather amazing to flit… Continue reading →
Thomas Grant Richardson In the Spring of 2018 I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Benton and Linn Counties in the Willamette Valley. Folklorists focus on the everyday traditions of people in communities and at how people define creativity, tradition, and community in their own lives. It is therefore a great joy to work as a folklorist,… Continue reading →
Amy Howard During the spring and summer of 2018, OFN hired me to conduct folklife fieldwork in Marion and Polk counties and at the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The geographical area I covered was large and diverse. The sheer length of each county encompasses a landscape in transition—mountain to valley to coast. Each… Continue reading →
Alina Mansfield In the Winter and Spring of 2018, I attended many of Lane County’s regional cultural events, festivals, and fairs to scout out tradition keepers for the Willamette Valley Folklife Survey. The Willamette Valley is homeland to the Kalapuya Tribes, with the Molalla calling the foothills of the Cascades home. More recently, a significant… Continue reading →
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… Continue reading →
Thanks to the diligent fieldwork of folklorists Nancy Nusz, Douglas Manger, and Makaela Kroin, OFN was able to invite several recommended community scholars from the Portland Metro for our first training workshop of its kind. Twelve of us gathered on Sunday, June 3, 2018 to talk about our traditions, our cultures, and how to document… Continue reading →
UO Students Kayleigh Graham, Brad McMullen, and Hillary Tully spent two weekends this term accompanying fieldworkers Thomas Grant Richardson and Amy Howard as they documented culture keepers in the Willamette Valley. Here’s a slide show providing their thoughts on the weekends.
Amy Howard received a BA in Anthropology from Brigham Young University and an MA in American Studies and Folklore from Utah State University. Her love of folklore fieldwork began in 2007 on an undergraduate field study in Guatemala. Since then, she has interned at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, coordinated public programs, and… Continue reading →
