Monday, July 16, 2012

Avalon Folklore Project - working with communities to safeguard culture


We are launching new folklore project which I'm very excited about!

Since 2008, the Intangible Cultural Heritage office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) has worked to provide a broad range of training workshops throughout the province. While this approach has reached a lot of communities, there is often little opportunity for follow-up support, or on-site guidance, as community groups develop their own projects.

In response to this lack of follow-up, we have developed a project-based training program to help community groups, this year with a focus on the Avalon peninsula region.

The Avalon Folklore Project is exciting for me because I will get to work alongside a community group, from start to finish, as they develop a small local folklore project.

Communities in the area will submit ideas for projects to the foundation, which will select two projects for work in 2012.

The foundation will walk the community through the process of planning and implementing their project. We will give project-specific training and lead community-based workshops.

The training will culminate in a final presentation or community activity, where the general public will be invited to see the collected research.

We often hear about traditions that are under threat. The Avalon Folklore Project will allow us to work with communities on those parts of their culture that they feel are important to safeguard.

Interested communities can contact me toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2, or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca. Priority will be given to projects where traditions are currently in danger of being lost, or which are in communities where the ICH office has not done work in the past.

Deadline for submissions is July 31st, 2012.


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