Tangible and Intangible History

Sarah Umstot

April 1^st, 2010 piece

                I sat at my camp this fine spring evening while the cool air settled in and the dew began to fall. My small fire crackled and echoed off the bank and my puppy lay on a knoll just a bit away from me with a bone. As the light settled around me I reflected on the work of the evening — some garden work, some planting and the never ending game of pick-‘em-up-sticks that I play with the trees that surround the camp. It seems as though in that time and place cultural policy are further from me than the stars in the sky. But just as the ash from my fire flies up and away on the breeze, it and the weight of the ever present policy began to land on my thoughts and my little piece of ground.

                A quote from this weeks reading has remained prominent in my mind. Dyen says of the streets of Pittsburgh “In place of immersion in daily folklife, we now have heritage museums, restored buildings, and neighborhood historic districts that mark where daily folk culture used * to live” (p. 2, *emphasis added). This brings to the forefront, for me, the struggle of cultural sustainability and the possibilities of cultural tourism and preservations versus continuation and sustainability of folklife, folkways and folk traditions. The idea in our field is to take those things that seem to be the most basic, simple and vital to the way of life in a given area and to mold ways for them to last, like adding wood to the fire before it burns out.

Who took the FUN out of Funding?

“…I think that we as a civilization ought to be remembered for something other than the ribbons of concrete with which we mar the landscape.”

                                                                  Mr. Simon, downstate Cabondale in response to a cost objection to the American Folklife Preservation Act. (in reference to the cost of highways and expressways versus the cost of the proposed folklife bill)

            It seems to me some days that everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame. It seems that everyone wants to be remembered, whether by many or by few, for something. We hope to live on even after our passing in the memories of those that knew us. The overwhelming need to create memories and participate in life is existent; the only problem seems to be that more often than not there are few who want to foot the bill for our life’s production. For making an impact surely is a costly endeavor. There has been many a war waged, some in silence, some within the highest realms of authority, for the sake and preservation of the everyday life. There is something to be cherished in how people choose to carry out their lives and there is importance in every action. For taking no action is also choosing to act, and this motion can be monumental.

Culture, Customs & Art

“Culture is the sum-total of human ingenuity: language, signs and symbols, systems of belief, customs, clothes, cuisine, tools, toys and trinkets, the built environment and everything we use to fill it up, and the cherry on the sundae, art.”

                                                            Goldbard

This quote brought to mind each of the students in this MACS program. Each interest, each motive, each means is represented and important. And by important, I certainly do mean vital to the life of humanity. People can live in this world, but to me it is the participation in the living world that makes each action special. It is the minute, often unnoticed ways of living that become the art forms that are most cherished. But these ‘art forms’ are in a constant state of fluctuation and growth. Who decides what get’s noted down in the history books, who decides what becomes real and solid and who says that is what actually means anything at all?

            I was particularly intrigued by the Goldbard article this week. It embraces the overlapping worlds of customs, culture and art in a way that is digestible and applicable in a more immediate sense than several of the other readings. I find great wisdom in the statement “Culture is what we collectively make of the raw ingredients of life”. I believe that too often we find policy trying to capture and hold something that is not tangible or is already past. Like holding sand in a closed hand, grain by grain, the sand is bound to start slipping away until one can find the correct grasp or until one runs out and has to start all over again. Much too frequently, true culture slips by unnoticed and unprotected while policy is built around participation that is governed and regulated, not allowed to flow freely from the hands of the creators themselves.