Cultural Conservation
The Louisiana Folklife Program is mandated to identify, document,
present, and preserve Louisiana's folk artists, practitioners,
communities, and landscapes. These activities are sometimes called
"cultural conservation," since "preservation"
is more readily applied to concrete materials such as historic
houses or artifacts in museums. Conserving a living cultural
tradition means encouraging and helping people and communities
to carry on the best of their traditions, from Cajun music to
blues and gospel, from deer-hide chair making to cypress basketweaving
and wooden boatbuilding. This approach supports a cultural continuity
that bridges Louisiana's past to its future.
Conserving our folklife enriches
the cultural life of all Louisianians, encourages pride in our
many heritages, and stimulates diverse cottage industries in
crafts and markets for traditional music. Traditional cultures
are also a key factor in attracting tourists to Louisiana.
The Creole State exhibit
provides both preservation of the artifacts and cultural conservation
in honoring and supporting the carriers of tradition. In addition
to this exhibit, the Folklife Program has also produced several
recordings of traditional music, various exhibits and publications
on regions and traditions in the state, ethnographic radio programs,
conferences and workshops on folklife, the book Louisiana Folklife:
A Guide to the State, and most recently the book and video, Swapping
Stories: Folktales from Louisiana. This exhibit originated at
the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in conjunction with the first
Louisiana Folklife Festival, now an annual event taking place
in Monroe. Along with other folklife events such as the Natchitoches/Northwestern
Folk Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Southwest
Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival in Plaisance, and Festivals Acadiens
in Lafayette that present and interpret performers from traditional
communities, the Louisiana Folklife Festival provides public
celebration of traditional life in the state.
Field research is the heart
of all Folklife Program activities, from advising a federal agency
of the need to mitigate its impact on the culture of a fishing
community to producing a folk festival or an exhibit such as
this. Field research is conducted through the Louisiana Folklife
Database using interview forms, cassette recordings, photograph,
and video documentation. The Louisiana Folklife Database project
houses information about folk artists who want to participate
in public presentations and is a collaboration between the Louisiana
Folklife Program and the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern
State University in Natchitoches.
If you know of fine practitioners
of folk traditions in Louisiana who should be included in the
survey and our programming, please contact the Louisiana Folklife
Program within the Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development
in the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism at folklife@crt.la.gov
or the Louisiana Folklife Center at folklife@nsula.edu.
