WHAT IS FOLKLIFE? WHAT IS MARYLAND TRADITIONS? YO U M AY B E A S K I N G YO U R S E LF “ W H AT A R E M A RY L A N D T R A D I T I O N S? ” TO DAY W E PR E S E N T YO U W I T H A G LI M P S E O F T H AT A N S W E R . You may also be asking “what is Maryland Traditions?” To which we’ll tell you that Maryland Traditions is the folklife program of the Maryland State Arts Council. We’re a team of folklorists, spread across the state, working together to document, celebrate, and sustain traditional arts and culture through regionally-based partnerships at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (U P P E R S H O R E) , Frostburg State University (M O U N TA I N M A RY L A N D) , the National Council for the Traditional Arts (M E T R O D C A N D S TAT E W I D E) , University of Maryland Baltimore County (M E T R O B A LT I M O R E A N D S TAT E W I D E) , and the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art (LO W E R S H O R E) . We are also a network of individuals and communities, practitioners and professionals, artists and presenters with a common goal: passing on traditional knowledge from one generation to the next. I N D E E D, FO L K A N D T R A D I T I O N A L A R T S A R E H A N D E D D OW N FR O M
E . JAY H E N D R I C K S O N , MASTER BLADESMITH
G E N E R AT I O N TO G E N E R AT I O N T H R O U G H WO R D O F M O U T H O R E X A M PLE .
They may be verbal, musical, or visual, occupational or religious. They may be indigenous or have found a welcoming home in Maryland. You will find some of each of these at today’s festival. Taken together, these forms of expressive traditional culture – or what we call folklife – endow Maryland with a distinctive sense of place. True, folklife provides identity to communities, but it also serves as the vehicle by which communities gather to link past and future. These are living traditions – not living history. They are dynamic and ever-changing, however slowly that may seem, and always growing to encompass newcomers or reacting to new circumstances. The practitioners you meet today are masters in their own right, but they are also celebrated representatives of their communities. All of us gather today to learn from one another, to share questions, beliefs and memories to pass on to another generation. Enjoy the festival! Clifford R. Murphy, PhD D I R E C TO R , M A RY L A N D T R A D I T I O N S