AFTA’s Focus
AFTA’s three points of focus:
Document: AFTA conducts regular fieldwork to document Arkansas traditions and tradition-bearers. Fieldwork most often takes the form of oral history interviews, photographs, and other audio/video recordings depending on the circumstances and wishes of collaborators. Fieldwork may be used for programming and publications, but a “product” of fieldwork collected is not necessary. Contributing to and growing documentation of Arkansas folk and traditional arts is a goal in and of itself.
Present: AFTA partners with organizations and individual collaborators to offer or support public programming centered on Arkansas folk and traditional arts. Public programs include lectures, workshops, exhibits, demonstrations, festivals, educational curriculum, and more. AFTA strives to ensure that programming is open to the general public and both physically and economically accessible.
Sustain: Whether fieldwork or public programming, the heart of AFTA’s work is sustaining and supporting Arkansas tradition-bearers to ensure that Arkansas folk and traditional arts can thrive for communities across the state. AFTA aims to provide resources and programming that offer support, skills, and training for citizens involved in documenting or practicing Arkansas traditions.
Defining Folk Arts
AFTA staff belong to a society of folklorists who study folklore in the academic and/or public sector. The definition of folklore and its related terminology has a long and complex history. Though folklorists agree on the components of the definition, the term “folklore” has been difficult to define succinctly. The American Folklore Society has compiled a list of these varied definitions created and shared by folklorists over the years in the article,
“What is Folklore?”
William M. Clements, in the introduction to An Arkansas Folklore Sourcebook, devotes large portions of the chapter to discussing the topic, but perhaps simplifies it best by writing that, “folklorists study unofficial culture.” Folk art and traditional art, an important part of the study of folklore, can be used interchangeably to discuss traditions that are artfully and skillfully executed and communicated within communities. Folk and traditional arts could be seen as one component of a broader term, “folklife,” which serves to encompass the idea of folk arts (often seen to include only material traditions) with other intangible aspects, such as beliefs, customs, legends (in material traditions).
Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts takes a broad approach to studying and sustaining traditions throughout the state and may use the word “folklife” in programming and publications. Intangible traditions can also be considered artforms (such as storytelling) and often intangible traditions are intertwined with tangible forms of material culture.
Folk and Traditional Arts are:
Rooted in Communities: Traditional arts exist in communities, which can include families, geographic regions, religious groups, clubs, schools, and more. Some folklorists call these different communities “folk groups.”
Learned in Communities: Traditional arts are passed down and learned between members of communities, though new generations may add their unique twist to the tradition. Those individuals who practice and share their traditions are called “tradition-bearers.”
New and Emerging: Traditions evolve and change. Communities create new traditions all the time, including new foods, events, festivals, sayings, jokes, rituals, and more.
Diverse Yet Universal: Diverse communities thrive across the State of Arkansas yet all have their own traditions and traditional arts that are a part of the heritage and unique story of Arkansas.
