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44-507: The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) is the United States' first and the world's oldest continually operated museum dedicated to the preservation, collection, and exhibition of American folk art . Located just outside the historic boundary of Colonial Williamsburg , Virginia , AARFAM was founded with a collection donated by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and an endowment from her widower, John D. Rockefeller Jr. , heir to

88-549: A display of “authenticity, excellence, and significance within a particular tradition” for the artists selected. (NEA guidelines) .” In 1966, the NEA's first year of funding, support for national and regional folk festivals was identified as a priority with the first grant made in 1967 to the National Folk Festival Association. Folklife festivals are celebrated around the world to encourage and support

132-454: A great deal, to say about what passes for acceptable folk art." Historically, the training in a handicraft was done as apprenticeships with local craftsmen, such as the blacksmith or the stonemason . As the equipment and tools needed were no longer readily available in the community, these traditional crafts moved into technical schools or applied arts schools. Teaching of the craft through informal means outside of institutions has opened

176-436: A known type. Similar objects can be found in the environment made by other individuals which resemble this object. Individual pieces of folk art will reference other works in the culture, even as they show exceptional individual execution in form or design. If antecedents cannot be found for this object, it might still be a piece of art but it is not folk art. "While traditional society does not erase ego, it does focus and direct

220-466: A new more accessible, street-level entrance on Nassau Street. The 424 objects, collected by Abby Rockefeller between 1929 and 1942 remain the core of the collection, however the museum has grown into containing more than 3,000 objects today. The first year after its opening the museum came to include, besides Rockefeller's collection, works assembled by J. Stuart Halladay and Herrell Thomas, Holger Cahill , Edith Gregor Halpert, and John Law Robertson. Now

264-575: A problem as a purposeful solution." Written by George Kubler and published in 1962, " The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things " describes an approach to historical change which places the history of objects and images in a larger continuum of time. The purpose of folk art is not purely decorative or aimed to have duplicated handicraft. However, since the form itself was a distinct type with its function and purpose, folk art has continued to be copied over time by different individuals. The object

308-410: A recognizable style and method in crafting its pieces, which allows products to be recognized and attributed to a single individual or workshop. This was originally articulated by Alois Riegl in his study of Volkskunst, Hausfleiss, und Hausindustrie , published in 1894. "Riegl ... stressed that the individual hand and intentions of the artist were significant, even in folk creativity. To be sure,

352-566: A sampling of different materials, forms, and artisans involved in the production of everyday and folk art objects. Listed below are a wide-ranging assortment of labels for an eclectic group of art works. All of these genres are created outside of the institutional structures of the art world, and are not considered "fine art". There is overlap between these labeled collections, such that an object might be listed under two or more labels. Many of these groupings and individual objects might also resemble "folk art" in its aspects, however may not align to

396-445: A traditional community. Intangible folk arts can include such forms as music and art galleries, dance and narrative structures. Objects of folk art are a subset of material culture and include objects which are experienced through the senses, by seeing and touching. Typical for material culture in art, these tangible objects can be handled, repeatedly re-experienced, and sometimes broken. They are considered works of art because of

440-652: Is promote international understanding and world peace. In the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts works to promote greater understanding and sustainability of cultural heritage across the United States and around the world through research, education, and community engagement. As part of this, they identify and support NEA folk art fellows in quilting, ironwork, woodcarving, pottery, embroidery, basketry, weaving, along with other related traditional arts. The NEA guidelines define as criteria for this award

484-409: Is recognized as being exceptional in the form and decorative motifs. Being part of the community, the craftsperson is reflecting on the community's cultural aesthetics, and may take into consideration the community's response to the handicraft. An object can be created to match the community's expectations, and the artist may design the product with unspoken cultural biases to reflect this aim. While

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528-461: Is supposedly rooted in the collective awareness of simple people. The concept of folk art is a distinctly 19th-century one. Today it carries with it a tinge of nostalgia for pre-industrial society." Folk arts , which include both performance and tangible arts, reflect the cultural life of a community associated with the fields of folklore and cultural heritage . Tangible folk art can include objects which historically are crafted and used within

572-498: Is usually developed in isolation or in small communities across the country. The Smithsonian American Art Museum houses over 70 folk and self-taught artists. Folk art objects are usually produced in a one-off production process. Only one object is made at a time, either by hand or in a combination of hand and machine methods, and are not mass-produced . As a result of manual production, individual pieces are considered to be unique and usually can be differentiated from other objects of

616-652: The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum , both collections retain their respective names — and are together known as the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. After collecting a formative group of American folk art pieces under the advisement of consultants and art dealers, art patron Abby Aldrich Rockefeller anonymously loaned part of her folk art collection to the Museum of Modern Art exhibition American Folk Art: The Art of

660-484: The International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) . Their declared mission is to “further folk art, customs and culture around the world through the organization of festivals and other cultural events, … with emphasis on dancing, folk music, folk songs and folk art.” By supporting international exchanges of folk art groups as well as the organization of festivals and other cultural events, their goal

704-663: The Ludwell–Paradise House in Williamsburg. Four years later, she donated the collection to Colonial Williamsburg, where it remained in the Ludwell-Paradise House until 1956. In 1956, after the 1948 death of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and two years after her husband announced he would endow a Williamsburg museum bearing the Rockefeller name, their son David Rockefeller augmented the collection at

748-602: The AARFAM left the South English Street building and co-located the growing folk art collection with the nearby DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum — on Francis St. between Nassau and South Henry Streets, near Merchants Square . There, the collection occupied an expansion of 10,400 square feet of exhibition space with 11 galleries, entered via a notably circuitous arrival sequence beneath Colonial Williamsburg's adjacent Public Hospital of 1773 building. With

792-584: The AARFAM's relocation, the original building (with its oval garden) and the 1992 addition (with its fountain garden) became associated with the Spa of Colonial Williamsburg . The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation announced in 2014 a $ 40 million addition to the Dewitt Wallace/Abby Aldrich structure to break ground in April 2017 and open in 2019 — to include a new 65,000sf wing and to feature

836-569: The Common Man in America, 1750–1900 which ran from November 30, 1932, through January 14, 1933 in New York. The exhibition would later tour six US cities, and in 2017, Antiques Magazine wrote that "whether or not there was unanimous agreement on the importance of folk art in that story, the category could no longer be ignored." In 1935 Rockefeller loaned part of her folk art collection to

880-640: The Ludwell-Paradise House with another 54 folk art objects his mother had donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art . The collection remained open to the public at the Ludwell Paradise House until January 1, 1956." In conceiving a new location for the collection, the Rockefellers had worked with pioneer collector in the field of American decorative arts and folk art, Nina Fletcher Little who in

924-622: The Standard Oil fortune and co-founder of Colonial Williamsburg . With her seminal collection, Abby Rockefeller "elevated a body of material that had long been dismissed as homespun craft to a nationally-recognized and highly-regarded form of American art." The original building opened in May 1957, with Mitchell Wilder as Director, and was expanded in 1992 before being moved and expanded again in 2007, each time to accommodate its growing collection. Abby Rockefeller's collection of 424 pieces became

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968-608: The Wallace museum. Though co-located in a single building, both collections retain their respective names — and are together known as the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. In 2014, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation announced a $ 40 million addition to the two co-located museums to break ground in April 2017 and open in 2019 — to include an expansion of 65,000sf and a new more accessible street-level entrance on Nassau Street. In 1922,

1012-493: The Wallaces published the first issue of their Reader's Digest , largely a carefully selected compilation of magazine articles of many types. The concept was well received and soon became one of the most widely circulated periodicals in the world. Laurance Rockefeller , whose parents were the original financial drivers of Colonial Williamsburg, was a longtime friend and associate of DeWitt Wallace , and Wallace, in turn became

1056-650: The Whitechapel Gallery in London as part of the Festival of Britain . This exhibition, along with her publication The Unsophisticated Arts , exhibited folk and mass-produced consumer objects alongside contemporary art in an early instance of the popularisation of pop art in Britain. The United Nations recognizes and supports cultural heritage around the world, in particular UNESCO in partnership with

1100-660: The artist may have been obliged by group expectations to work within the norms of transmitted forms and conventions, but individual creativity – which implied personal aesthetic choices and technical virtuosity – saved received or inherited traditions from stagnating and permitted them to be renewed in each generation." Individual innovation in the production process plays an important role in the continuance of these traditional forms. Many folk art traditions like quilting, ornamental picture framing, and decoy carving continue to be practiced, and new forms continue to emerge. Contemporary outsider artists are often self-taught, and their work

1144-658: The basis of a collection that now includes more than 7,000 folk art pieces dating from the 1720s to the present. A further expansion at its current location is projected to open in 2019. Having opened originally as the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection (AARFAC), the facility changed names in 1977 to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (AARFAC) and again in 2000 to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum . Now co-located with

1188-431: The choices that an individual can acceptably make… the well-socialized person will find the limits are not inhibiting but helpful… Where traditions are healthy the works of different artists are more similar than they are different; they are more uniform than personal." Tradition in folk art emerges through the passing of information from one generation to another. Through generations of family lines, family members pass down

1232-419: The culture is typically visible in the final product. Folk art is designed in different shapes, sizes and forms. It traditionally uses the materials which are at hand in the locality and reproduces familiar shapes and forms. The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage has compiled a page of storied objects that have been part of one of their annual folklife festivals . The list below includes

1276-407: The defining characteristics outlined above. Folk artworks, styles and motifs have inspired various artists. For example, Pablo Picasso was inspired by African tribal sculptures and masks. Natalia Goncharova and others were inspired by traditional Russian popular prints called luboks . In 1951, artist, writer and curator Barbara Jones organised the exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade at

1320-442: The early 1950s suggested "the ceilings be lowered and the interior become a series of domestic-scaled spaces. She did the first research on the collection, made attributions of paintings, and wrote the first catalogue of the collection." The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection opened in May 1957 in a new two-story, purpose-built Georgian/Federal Revival brick building with a prominent oval garden — located just outside

1364-500: The education and community engagement of diverse ethnic communities. DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum 37°16′7.9″N 76°42′16.6″W  /  37.268861°N 76.704611°W  / 37.268861; -76.704611 The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum (DWDAM), is a museum dedicated to British and American fine and decorative arts from 1670-1840, located in Williamsburg, Virginia . Situated just outside

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1408-497: The genre to artists who may face barrier to entry in other disciplines. Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis , for example, suffered from an undiagnosed congenital illness, making formal art schooling a challenge. Despite barriers to formal education, Lewis became one of Canada's most famous folk artists, creating thousands of paintings of life in Nova Scotia . The object is recognizable within its cultural framework as being of

1452-503: The historic boundary of Colonial Williamsburg , DWDAM was founded with an initial 1982 donation by DeWitt Wallace (1889–1981) and his wife Lila Bell Acheson Wallace (1889–1984) — co-founders of Reader's Digest . The Wallaces donated $ 12 million to finance reconstruction of the nation's first public mental hospital, the Public Hospital of 1773 and construction of the decorative arts museum — to be connected to

1496-576: The historic district of Colonial Williamsburg at South England Street, adjacent to the Williamsburg Inn . At this time (1957), the Ludwell-Paradise House, despite being the original real estate purchase by John Rockefeller to create Colonial Williamsburg, became a private residence." In 1992, the museum inaugurated a 19,000-square-foot single-story brick addition featuring a prominent planted wood and brick pergola and an adjoining fountain garden, designed by architects Roche-Dinkeloo . In 2007,

1540-573: The hospital by an underground concourse. Having initially opened in 1985, the museum has since expanded to include the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and will undergo another expansion to open in 2019 with a new, street-level entrance. The museum features diverse collections related to the founding of the United States — including furniture, paintings, silver, numismatics, ceramics, tools, textiles, glass, maps, weapons, media and other objects from

1584-485: The knowledge, information, skills and tools needed to continue the creation of one's folk art. Examples are Leon “Peck” Clark, a Mississippi basket maker, who learned his skills from a community member; George Lopez of Cordova, New Mexico, who is a sixth-generation santos carver whose children also carve; and the Yorok-Karok basket weavers, who explain that relatives generally taught them to weave.” The known type of

1628-640: The museum contains works of portraiture, Southern and African American folk art, sculpture, fraktur , and textiles. It includes representative works of well renowned artists, such as Eddie Arning , Wilhelm Schimmel , Erastus Salisbury Field , Edward Hicks , Lewis Miller , Albert Hoffman , Louis Joseph Bahin and Ammi Phillips . Various exhibitions of the museum regarded 18th and 19th-century painters such as Zedekiah Belknapp, James Sanforth Elsworth, and Asabel Lynde Powers. The museum includes notable 18th-century watercolor paintings such as The Old Plantation , by South Carolina slave owner John Rose. One of

1672-553: The notable curators of the museum has been Thomas N. Armstrong III . Folk art The types of objects covered by the term "folk art" vary. The art form is categorised as "divergent... of cultural production ... comprehended by its usage in Europe, where the term originated, and in the United States, where it developed for the most part along very different lines." From a European perspective, Edward Lucie-Smith described it as "Unsophisticated art, both fine and applied, which

1716-402: The object must be, or have originally been, utilitarian; it was created to serve some function in the daily life of the household or the community. This is the reason the design continues to be made. Since the form itself had function and purpose, it was duplicated over time in various locations by different individuals. A book on the history of art states that "every man-made thing arises from

1760-586: The permanent Colonial Williamsburg collection. DWDAM is accessed through and underneath the Public Hospital of 1773 , which commemorates the first mental health facility in the Colony of Virginia . The facility features a restaurant as well as the Hennage Auditorium, which offers lectures and musical performances. In 2006, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum relocated from its original location on S. England Street to share an expansion of

1804-529: The same type. In his essay on "Folk Objects", folklorist Simon Bronner references preindustrial modes of production, but folk art objects continue to be made as unique crafted pieces by folk artisans. "The notion of folk objects tends to emphasize the handmade over machine manufactured. Folk objects imply a mode of production common to preindustrial communal society where knowledge and skills were personal and traditional." Folk art does not need to be old; it continues to be hand-crafted today in many regions around

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1848-425: The shared form indicates a shared culture, innovation can enable the individual artisan to embody their own vision. This can be a representation of manipulating collective and individual culture, within the traditional folk art production. "For art to progress, its unity must be dismantled so that certain of its aspects can be freed for exploration, while others shrink from attention." This dichotomous representation of

1892-451: The technical execution of an existing form and design; the skill might be seen in the precision of the form, the surface decoration or in the beauty of the finished product. As a folk art, these objects share several characteristics that distinguish them from other artifacts of material culture. The object is created by a single artisan or team of artisans. The craft-person works within an established cultural framework. The folk art has

1936-405: The world. The design and production of folk art is learned and taught informally or formally; folk artists are not self-taught. Folk art does not aim for individualistic expression. Instead, "the concept of group art implies, indeed requires, that artists acquire their abilities, both manual and intellectual, at least in part from communication with others. The community has something, usually

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