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Passing It On:
Traditional Artists in New Jersey Schools
In 1978 the NJSCA, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Arts and Rutgers University, had introduced a folk arts program as a special component of its Artists in Education (then called Artists in the Schools) program. Linda Constant Buki, at the time the Arts in Education coordinator for the NJSCA, had set up the first FAIE program in Cinnaminson High School in Burlington County. For this project, the folklorists Patricia Averill and Angus Gillespie conducted research and brought ethnic and regional folk artists into the school for demonstrations and performances. Buki then hired the folklorist Mary Hufford to coordinate a project at the Veterans Middle School in Camden County. Hufford's program, which culminated in a festival for the community, included a wide range ofschool residencies and performances by folk artists who represented the varied cultural groups of the Cramer Hill section of Camden. Her landmark publication, A Tree Smells Like Peanut Butter: Folk Artists in a City School, describes the Cramer Hill project. Her next project involved research on the Pinelands region in several New Jersey counties, eventually resulting in a program in the Bayville Regional School District. Berda Rittenhouse, the Arts in Education director, mentions three of the Bayville residencies in her foreword; like the Camden program, the Bayville program also included community festivals.
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As these programs developed, the concept of the folk artist's residency grew from a single workshop or performance to an extended cooperative endeavor among the artist, the teacher, and a core group of students, a format that encouraged greater involvement of all parties. During the same period, folklorists in many other states were also developing models for FAIE programs. Regardless of the program structure, all the folklorists had a common concern: involving teachers in the construction and presentation of the programs, and creating an impact on the schools that would be sustained after the program was finished and the folklorist had left. |
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