Hi, I am Bob Gates, director of the Kentucky Folklife Program. In the last two folklore blogs, Alisha has been describing some of the things folklorists at the Kentucky Folklife Program do on a daily basis. I am sending a copy of her blog to my mother so she finally understands what I do for a living. Actually she should know because at our first Kentucky Folklife Festival I presented her and my dad on the foodways stage preparing a Northern Kentucky delicacy called goetta. I will not get into that today but promise to share my mom’s famous recipe next time I have an opportunity to blog.
Today I want to follow up on Alisha’s story of what we do. Our mission is to document, conserve, interpret and present the folklife resources of Kentucky. Alisha talked about the first two missions--documenting and conserving--when she shared how we did some recent documentation of newcomer culture to our state (Latino artists in Shelbyville and Louisville) and how we began the process of conserving it in the Folklife Archives. I want to talk about how we developed a relationship with representatives of these groups to interpret what their folk art means to them and developed with them a fun and educational program that presented their culture to others at Kentucky Crafted: The Market.
Preparing for the Latino Area
We had planned to present some of Kentucky’s Latino culture at the Market, and we had done the research with this in mind, but we were not sure how we would present them there - what we wanted visitors to learn and how the components would work together to accomplish this. We always try to do collaborative interpretation - meaning we work with members of the folk group to design the presentation. In the past, we organized an advisory group of Latino artists who agreed on sharing this message- “We are not all from Mexico, we come from many countries with many traditions.” They also wanted people to know why they keep these traditions alive in their new country. One of these artists, our old friend Jose Neil Donis, agreed to be our main advisor. He also served as our liaison with Ana, Rita and Jorge.
It took a lot of calls to Jose explaining our requests and needs and him relaying our messages to the rest of the artists, but we came up with a plan. Alisha wrote the copy for five interpretive signs based on her interviews. One sign was an introduction to the Latino folklife area, and the others were about the artists and their communities. After the signs were proofed we sent the text to Jose to make a Spanish language version of the text. Jose turned this around in one day, even though he had plenty of work to do putting out his newspaper Al Dia … .
Next the sign copy went to the Kentucky Historical Society’s Design Team for design and fabrication. Meanwhile, Alisha wrote an article for Al Dia newspaper, and the two blogs that helped publicize the event. Mark and I worked on a budget (to pay artists for time and travel), logistics (schedules for everyone), and gathering display elements (shelves, dress forms for Ana and Rita’s costumes, platforms for the narrative stage and the alfombra display). On top of this we had to figure out how to get Jorge’s barber chairs and, most importantly, his customers (models for his art) to the Market. We worked out a plan to pick up the chairs on Friday night at close of business, and gave Jorge admission passes for his loyal customers to come to the Market for their haircuts.
Why is Mark so Dirty?
The alfombra brought other challenges, such as locating enough sawdust of a suitable quality (as defined by Jose and his helpers) and obtaining the special dyes that give the sawdust such brilliant colors. The KHS Education Team came up with the idea of a children’s activity of making miniature alfombras to take home with them. They needed to experiment with the sawdust here at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History before the event. Mark spent a half day with alfombra artist Edgar Tumax collecting large bags of sawdust from a Louisville saw mill. We knew he had done his job when he showed up at the Big Brothers/Big Sisters bowling fundraiser covered with sawdust. The bowling lane seemed to be a little slicker after he arrived.
The Plan and Setup
Part of the process for developing a folklife presentation area is to actually sit down and design it. So after meeting with folk group advisory members, developing themes, and identifying materials to work with, a plan emerged. Our design for the area consisted of a barbershop area complete with two chairs, barber equipment, a big mirror, and a waiting area. Next to this was the narrative stage platform, with P.A. system and five microphones. Adjacent to the narrative stage was Rita and Ana’s demonstration area with biographical signs, dresses on stands, and embroidery and crochet they brought to work on. Finally we put together stage platforms as a frame for the alfombra. To suggest a context for the alfombra, we placed a cross and two brass floor lamps to resemble a chapel of sorts (the alfombra is annually displayed in the chapel of The Church of the Annunciation in Shelbyville).
Friday evening I went to Jorge’s barber shop to pick up the barber chairs and I had a panic moment (like I often have on the eve of large-scale folklife events). With Alisha at a friend’s wedding in another state, and Mark working full-time at the Blue Moon Stage, I came to the realization I would be alone at 8:00 am when all the artists were scheduled to converge at the Market site. This meant that Rita and Ana and families with all their display materials; Jorge with his apprentice and customers; and Jose, Edgar and his friend with sawdust, dye and supplies for the alfombra would all be trying to find parking spaces at the Expo center and hurrying to set up. These folks would need to know exactly where to place things and how to get started and I had neglected to ask for volunteers to assist me.
At this point I decided to beg my wife Janet to assist me. Graciously, she agreed to come and help me in the folklife area. In addition to needing her, I truly value her help with these events. She was the first officially trained Community Scholar with our program and has served this role of helping to make folklife-related events successful since we first moved to Kentucky in 1989.
How It Went
Everything went great. Well not everything , there were some glitches in the beginning.. I consider dying the sawdust a part of the process of constructing alfombras and I wanted people to see this, but Jose and Edgar preferred doing this behind the curtains away from the onlookers. They insisted that is was just too messy to do it out in the open. At one point, I did pull back the curtain to let some people see the process. (Note the photograph of the children holding their miniature alfombras while the artists dye sawdust.) 
During the day Janet and I talked with visitors and invited them to talk with the Latino artists. Manystopped, read the signs, and with a little prompting, interacted with the artists. It was fun and satisfying to watch these conversations because I felt people were starting to understand these new arrivals to Kentucky on an individual basis and were beginning to see why their traditions were important to them. The carryover into the children’s activities worked well. It helped to show that everybody has art in everyday life and that the visitor could share in this just as the non-Latino parishioners do in Shelbyville, making the alfombra tradition a part of the whole church community.
I had mixed feelings – excitement and dread when preparing to conduct the scheduled narrative stages at the Market. I knew that they all had great stories to share and that their interaction on the talk stage would be very interesting but I was also concerned about the communication translating factor especially with Ana who spoke a rare dialect. Because of Jose’s presence and abilities to translate so well, Ana was excited and animated in a way that we had not seen. I got to experience her intelligence and wit that, until then, our lack of communication had hidden. 
The barber, Jorge, was able to portray beautiful descriptions of his hair art and what it meant to him and his community through Jose’s translation. All the people on the narrative stage projected pride of their culture and traditions and appreciated having this opportunity. It is at times like these that I feel really good about my job and my role as a folklorist in helping to break down barriers and share glimpses of many ways of life. We developed a relationship with these artists, not only through our fieldwork research but also through this type of intimate programming.
One way they showed their appreciation was to honor Janet and I by asking us to walk through the alfombra at the close of the event on Sunday evening. Edgar said that normally only very important people are asked to lead the procession that basically destroys this beautiful piece of art. It was difficult for me but it was even harder for Janet to walk through and destroy this beautiful work of art (see photo) that was modeled after a stained-glass image of a cross and the logo for the Market. 
At the end of the day on Sunday, honorarium and reimbursement forms were completed by the artists and plans were made to get copies of the photographs to them. The tear down is always most exhausting part of events like these. As it was, my daughter, son and their friends stayed around to help with packing up and tearing down the site. My son stayed with me until 10:00 p.m. helping to get everything packed back in the vans to go back to Frankfort. I made it home at about 11:30 that evening. We are still following up with the artists, sharing pictures, returning extra sawdust, and Mark delivered the interpretive sign we used at the Market to the Church of the Annunciation for use with their upcoming Easter alfombra.
Public programming like this can be done almost any place with folklorists or Community Scholars – at libraries, festivals, museums, public events, etc. People really enjoy these informative presentations, especially if presenters engage them in conversation and invite them to talk with the artists. Success depends on developing relationships with the artist, collaborative interpretation, lining up good helpers, designing a good plan while being flexible and able to adapt on the spot and keeping a close eye on the details. We must have faith that people can and will present their culture in a meaning way to outsiders if given the help and framing abilities that only comes about by doing research and working closely with the artists to be presented. To a visitor, it may look like there’s not that much to pull off this type of event, but there is indeed a lot of planning and time that goes into any successful program. It’s always worth the effort to me – it keeps me motivated to do what I do.
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