Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2000 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
odd: label: Introduction
content: The goal of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is to present diverse, community-based traditions in an understandable and respectful way. The great strength of the Festival is to connect the public, directly and compellingly, with practitioners of cultural traditions. In 2000, the Festival featured programs on the cultural ecology of the Río Grande/Río Bravo Basin, on Tibetan refugee culture, and on the local traditions of Washington, D.C. Visitors could learn how a cowboy or vaquero from South Texas works cattle, or speak with a Tibetan American immigrant about the meaning underlying her continued practice of sacred traditions. As an artist's hand guided the eyes of Festival viewers, they could imagine how an urban mural reflects life in Washington, D.C.

The Festival program on the cultures of Washington, D.C., showed the vibrancy of local communities that live in the shadow of national institutions. El Río demonstrated the tenacity of regional culture at the borders, even margins, of Mexico and the United States. The program on Tibetan refugees provided a cultural in-gathering of a diaspora community facing issues of continuity and survival - climaxed by a huge ceremony on the National Mall presided over by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who also offered a public address on the occasion. Overall, the Festival this year demonstrated that, while people may be subject to modern forms of colonization, to unequal power and economic arrangements, and to marginalization, exile, and strife in many forms, they use their cultural traditions as sources of strength, resistance, and creativity to cope with and overcome their travail. Culture, after all, is a means of human adaptation. Just because people may be economically poor or politically powerless does not necessarily mean that their cultures are brittle or bereft of value.

The Festival has long had an especially significant impact on those artists, musicians, cooks, and ritual specialists who participate directly in it. The attention they receive usually fortifies their intent to pass on their traditions to children, apprentices, and students, just as it sometimes encourages cultural exemplars to extend their creativity by connecting it to broader civic and economic issues. The Festival's rich cultural dialogue on the National Mall was considered to be particularly significant for American civic life at the dawn of the 21st century, as we enter an era in which no single racial or ethnic group will be a majority. The Festival allows a broad array of visitors to understand cultural differences in a civil, respectful, and educational way. Little wonder it has become a model for public cultural presentation, adopted by organizations elsewhere in the United States and in other democratic nations.

The 2000 Festival took place during two five-day weeks (June 23-27 and June 30-July 4) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 9th Street and 14th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured three programs, with several special events including the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert. 

The 2000 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; essays provided background on the Festival and on each of the programs.

The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Richard Kurin, Director; Richard Kennedy, Deputy Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordngs; James Early, Director, Cultural Heritage Policy; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Olivia Cadaval, Chair, Research & Education; D.A. Sonneborn, Assistant Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Betty J. Belanus, Nancy Groce, Marjorie Hunt, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Peter Seitel, Cynthia Vidaurri, Curators, Folklorists, Education and Cultural Specialists; Carla M. Borden, Program/Publications Manager; John W. Franklin, Program Manager; Cynthia Vidaurri, Coordinator, Latino Cultural Resource Network; Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Stephanie Smith, Assistant Archivist; Arlene L. Reiniger, Program Specialist; Charlie Weber, Media Specialist; Zain Abdullah, Stanford Carpenter, Susan T. Chen, Roland Freeman, Dan Goodwin, Todd Harvey, Amy Horowitz, Ivan Karp, Guy Logsdon, Alan Lomax, Worth Long, René López, Kate Rinzler, Katherine Skinner, Saul Tobias, Bob White, Fellows & Research Associates

Folklife Advisory Council and Folkways Advisory Council

Michael Asch, Phyllis Barney, Jane Beck, Don DeVito, Pat Jasper, Ella Jenkins, Jon Kertzer, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, John Nixdorf, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Gilbert Sprauve, Jack Tchen, Ricardo Trimillos

National Park Service

Robert Stantion, Director; Terry Carlstrom, Director, National Capital Region
label: Shared Stewardship of Collections
content: The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://doi.org/10.25573/data.21771155.
name: label: Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
label: Names
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival
topic: label: Topic
content: Food habits
label: Topic
content: arts and crafts
label: Topic
content: World music
label: Topic
content: Folklore
label: Topic
content: Folk music
label: Topic
content: Folk art
label: Topic
content: Folk festivals
label: Topic
content: Hispanonorteamericanos -- Usos y costumbres
label: Topic
content: Mexican-American Border Region
label: Topic
content: Indigenous peoples -- America
label: Topic
content: Traditional ecological knowledge
creator: label: Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2000 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
abstract: label: Summary
content: The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
bioghist: label: Historical note
content: The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. 

The 2000 Smithsonian Folklife Festival was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and cosponsored by the National Park Service.

For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Cubic foot (approximate)
phystech: label: Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note
content: The Rinzler Archives is continually engaged in digitization of archival materials to facilitate preservation and ready access by users. However, given the diversity of legacy formats of the originals, some older materials may not be available. Notably, certain older audio recordings cannot be played because of deterioration of the tape stock, and the Archives has no playback equipment for EIAJ-1 videoreels (1/2 inch) or multi-track audio recordings. Where listening or viewing copies are available, this is generally indicated for each item. Users are encouraged to contact Archives staff to verify that the materials of interest to them are already accessible, or to determine if they can be digitized as needed.
unitdate: label: Date
content: June 23-July 4, 2000
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.SFF.2000
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Negatives
label: Type
content: Correspondence
label: Type
content: Business records
label: Type
content: Audiocassettes
label: Type
content: Slides (photographs)
label: Type
content: Memorandums
label: Type
content: Videotapes
label: Type
content: Contracts
label: Type
content: Notes
label: Type
content: Plans (drawings)
label: Type
content: Photographic prints
label: Type
content: Audiotapes
label: Type
content: Digital images
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Video recordings
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: Arranged in 5 series.

Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera

Series 2: El Río

Series 3: Special Events

Series 4: Tibetan Culture Beyond the Land of Snows

Series 5: Washington, D.C.: It's Our Home
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Negatives
label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records
label: Genre/Form
content: Audiocassettes
label: Genre/Form
content: Slides (photographs)
label: Genre/Form
content: Memorandums
label: Genre/Form
content: Videotapes
label: Genre/Form
content: Contracts
label: Genre/Form
content: Notes
label: Genre/Form
content: Plans (drawings)
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographic prints
label: Genre/Form
content: Audiotapes
label: Genre/Form
content: Digital images
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Video recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 2000 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
relatedmaterial: label: Forms Part Of
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2000 Smithsonian Folklife Festival forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .

Smithsonian Folklife Festival records

Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers

1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
label: Related Archival Materials note
content: Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.