On the Folk Art trail...

Our Junior Curator meeting this afternoon was great despite the absence of three of our members (Lancy, Allison and Katie) and the heat and humidity. Shelly, Jessie, Richard and Anne continued their exploration of Folk Art at Old York.
First the homework: we each brought an object (or two) from home that we thought was representative of folk art.

Here are a few of these objects:

Are they Folk Art? Jessie's sewing basket and vase, Shelly's "I Love You Mom" plaque, Richard's napkin....
If the object is made by someone who isn't formally trained, if the object is not mass-produced (sorry, Jessie, your basket is "made in Taiwan"!), if it is made by an artist for a specific community, then can we call it "Folk Art"?
Is this vase Folk Art?
The objects we brought have a story, we all have a strong emotional attachment to them, and it was nice to listen to each person describe the origins of the object....but this does not necessarily make the object an article of Folk Art.

We then headed to the Perkins House by the York River, another one of Old York's historic properties. There we took pictures of objects we thought were Folk Art.

Here are a few samples (we took many more photos...)

Ink well (Henry Chapman Mercer, PA, 1912)

Tile

Hooked Rug (York provenance)

Woman in Black with Brown Ribbons (Ruth and Samuel Shute, 1831-33)

Religious art

On our way back to York Village, we stopped at the George Marshall Store Gallery and asked Curator Mary Harding if she had any Folk Art for us...no, all her artists are formally trained.

But the show 140 is wonderful. Hurry! you still have a few days to see it!

Check the website for the Marshall Store Gallery online here and here.

Folk Art...for the community

Summary of July 19, 2007 Junior Curators Meeting:

"We went through the Emerson Wilcox House to examine and take pictures of what we thought was folk art [note of the editor: the Junior Curators had walked through the house two weeks before with Curator Tom Johnson who had pointed out some folk art objects].

Carrie, one of the Perkins Fellows with a degree in art history, was our guest speaker. She talked to us about her view of folk art and answered our questions. We learned that folk art has to appeal to the community where it was made. This means that the artists' community has to appreciate and find a use for the art.

Carrie helped us define folk art by describing its local aspect. She also pointed out that connoisseurs of folk art are qualified to determine what is (or isn't) folk art because of their training and knowledge.

From this information, we concluded that Shelly's drawing was not folk art [editor's note: or maybe "folk art for your parents?"]"

Homework for next week: Junior Curators (and Richard and Anne as well) have to bring in items from their home that they believe are folk art.

Junior Interpreters On The Road!

It's only the second season of the Junior Interpreters and they are already on tour!
Eight Junior Docents visited a local retirement community last Friday:

Emily, Sarah, Jessie, Laura E., Katie and Lancy (Mallory and Laura N. are hiding somewhere....)



The young ladies brought their knitting, carding, spinning, and embroidery to Sentry Hill. They shared their skills and even had the residents try their hands at carding and spinning:

And everyone was back on time to hearth cook at the tavern!

Junior Interpreters

Junior Interpreters are Junior Docents who want to share their knowledge with our visitors, demonstrate period crafts or play old-fashioned games. Junior Interpreters must have good communication skills as they are often asked questions about the museum.
Junior Interpreters are also asked to take the identity of a child or teenager who lived in York in the 1790s.

Here is Emily a.k.a. Sarah Junkins giving information to a tourist yesterday:

Junior Interpreters are required to spend a minimum of 3 hours a week at Old York. Every week, education assistants Zoe and Richard offer new activities. Yesterday, the young ladies were weaving simple candy baskets:

Sarah is preparing reed for the baskets.

Emily and Mallory start weaving their little candy baskets.

The boys were engaged in other activities:

Zach and Danny making tops....

(a special post is coming soon with Zach's own words on making tops)

What a great afternoon at Jefferds' Tavern!

What Is Folk Art?

Today we had a discussion about how to determine what folk art is because our project this summer is an online exhibit of folk art. We each defined folk art in our own way and shared our opinions with the group. Then we examined books on folk art, and we also went online to learn more about this art form. One question that we have is

who gets to decide what qualifies as folk art?

and that's when Shelly drew this picture:

Do you think this is folk art?

This is us hard at work:

Lancy, Katie and Shelly (the artist of the group)

Allison and Jessie

What do you think folk art is?Leave us comments here!

-The Junior Curators: Allison, Jessie, Katie, Lancy and Shelly."

Note from the editor (Anne):

for those of you who don't know the Junior Curators program...

Junior Curators are Junior Docents who have chosen to design an exhibit. This year, the group of JCs are working on an online exhibit on folk art. The theme was chosen by the education staff in anticipation for a "real" exhibit opening next spring at the Heritage Center.

Junior Curators are supervised/guided by education staff Richard Bowen and Anne Poubeau....but most of the words and photos you will see here are theirs... (except when one of the education staff decides to write a "note from the editor"!)

Junior Curators meet every Thursday afternoon. At the end of each session, they will write a post for this blog and hope to get comments from you!

Our first post!

Welcome to the Junior Docents blog!

We are a group of young people who participate in the 2007 Junior Docents program at the Museums of Old York in York, Maine.
We will update this site every week. Education Director Anne Poubeau and Education Assistants Zoe Keefer-Norris and Richard Bowen will also contribute to this blog.
We are looking forward to sharing our impressions as we are designing an online exhibit on folk art, greeting visitors in period costumes, presenting children's programs...and all in all enjoying summer at our favorite history museum!
Please join us in this wonderful adventure and check our blog often!
You can leave comments here and check summer events at Old York by visiting the museum's website.