The Outreach Programs staff also administers the Florida Folklife Program and the Great Floridians Program. The Florida Folklife Program (FFP) coordinates a wide range of activities and projects designed to increase the awareness of citizens and visitors about Florida’s traditional cultures. The Folklife Program documents Florida’s traditional culture through annual surveys on a wide range of topics. The Folklife Apprenticeship Program and the Florida Folk Heritage Awards celebrate and preserve the achievements of the state’s foremost tradition bearers. Florida’s folklife, or contemporary traditional culture, reflects both the state’s history and its constantly changing populace. Traditional patterns of skills used to make Puerto Rican lace, embroider Torah covers, weave white oak baskets, build a Seminole chickee, and create diving helmets, to name just a few examples, remain vibrant components of the state’s material folk culture. The storehouse of everyday knowledge necessary to operate a shrimp boat, raise tropical fruits and vegetables, braid a cow whip, or build an airboat demonstrates that folklife remains an important resource in the occupational culture of Floridians. The vast array of music and dance traditions — from bluegrass and African American gospel to Vietnamese opera, Mexican norteño music, Irish fiddle, Cuban comparsa, and Hawaiian hula - demonstrate that folklife is vital to connecting the state’s communities through creative expression. Between 2006 and 2010, the Florida Folklife Program underwent a period of change. The program produced Left: Afro-Cuban batá drummer & drum maker, Luis Ezequiel Torres, HISTORYMIAMI Right: Greek Diving Helmet maker, Nick Toth, Tarpon Springs, Florida Division of Historical Resources
and distributed a very successful exhibit on Florida Cattle Ranching traditions, which traveled to four in-state museum venues, and was featured at the 2010 National Cowboy Poetry Gathering at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada. It was seen by over 110,800 visitors. During this period, the Department of State’s position of State Folklorist was lost to budget cuts in the 2009 legislative session, but due to statutory requirements, the position was restored during the 2010 legislative session. The position was advertised in the summer of 2010, and reinstated in November 2010. Although the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill did not affect Florida’s coastal heritage resources as dramatically as feared, people along the Gulf Coast continue to feel the impact of the disaster in complicated, unexpected ways. The 2010-2011 annual survey conducted by the FFP focused on the Panhandle to document the folkways in this region. With resources in other Gulf Coast states deemed unsafe for consumption, some areas were overfished in response to increased demand. The economic impact was felt by people living along the Gulf Coast, especially individuals working in the commercial seafood and tourism industries. Public perception played as large a role as measurable environmental impacts. Most experienced a decrease in income, and yet the incomes of some individuals employed in traditional maritime occupations increased for the first time since the onset of the recession. Survey results were showcased by 38 traditional artists and demonstrators over a three-day period in the Folklife Area at the Florida Folklife Festival, an annual event coordinated by Florida State Parks and held at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park.
Bureau of Archaeological Research The state’s archaeology program is the responsibility of the Division of Historical Resources’ Bureau of Archaeological Research (BAR). State archaeologists provide leadership in the identification, preservation, and interpretation of archaeological sites, primarily on stateowned lands. They also provide technical assistance to private consultants, law enforcement personnel, and government planners, including training courses that focus on management of public sites and law enforcement.
FLORIDA’S COMPREHENSIVE HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLAN | Florida Division of Historical Resources
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