2024 will mark eighty years since the founding of the New York Folklore Society!
Throughout our history, we have championed cultural equity at all levels: local grassroots initiatives, regional conferences, state advocacy, and national presentations. Every year we expand new opportunities, partnerships, and networks that increase our capacity to support community organizations and artists across New York State.
Our 80th Anniversary Year, will be thrilling for our organization—concerts at The Linda, public programming in the Capital Region, diverse exhibitions in our gallery, a plaque place-making initiative, and more:
- Expansion of community-based engagement through community advocates and scholars in Binghamton, Utica, the mid-Hudson, the Capital District, and Buffalo.
- Partnerships with Local Learning; regional and statewide organizations such as the NYS Alliance for Arts Education and the New York State Council for Social Studies; folk arts programming in the Schenectady City School District; and more.
- Fiscal sponsorship of more than $400,000 in direct support for artists in 2023 and 2024, reflecting our core work in supporting folk and traditional artists and grassroots cultural organizations.
- Digitization of past and current articles of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, continuing seventy-nine years of publication on diverse topics and perspectives, for expanded access through our website.
In the five years since we celebrated our 75th Anniversary at a special event in Ossining, the Covid-19 pandemic wrought profound changes to our daily lives—and a lasting impact on the arts, nonprofit, and funding infrastructure of our state.
While 2024 will be a year of exciting expansion for our organization, it will also include fresh, new challenges in funding, systems, and more.
Your support enables us to continue to deliver services that support the traditional arts, culture, and quality of life in communities throughout New York.
Celebrate 80 Years of Folk Arts & Cultural Equity with a suggested donation of $80, and be involved in our work to improve cultural equity in New York State. Make an Anniversary Gift