Folk Art in the Time of COVID
International Folk Art Market International Folk Art Market
436 subscribers
295 views
8

 Published On Dec 1, 2020

IFAM partnered with the University of Texas at Austin to present Folk Art in the Time of COVID—an in-depth, engaging presentation and Q & A on the ways in which folk artists are responding to the pandemic, how their livelihoods have been impacted and how they are lending a helping hand to their neighbors.

The presentation focuses on the research of folklorist Dr. Suzanne Seriff and her team of nursing, public health, and international relations students from the University of Texas at Austin. The recipient of the President’s Award for Global Learning, the team has spent the last six months archiving, analyzing, and exhibiting stories of folk and traditional artists from around the globe—many from the IFAM family—to bring to light their stories of preservation in times of crisis.

Stories will include interviews conducted with over 20 artists in countries, including Australia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, East Timor Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mexico, Namibia, Nepal, Perú, Rwanda, South Africa, and the United States. Throughout the presentation, attendees will hear incredible stories of San bead workers in rural Namibia who mobilized in March to distribute “tippy taps” and hygiene training to their largely illiterate neighbors; a group of Hmong weavers in Laos, who transformed their handmade textiles into masks for communities in need and their global clientele; and a retablo maker in Peru who drew on his talents to document his communities’ stories of covid-related evictions, food relief lines, funerals, and testing sites through his intricately created shadow box scenes.

show more

Share/Embed