Chicago Ethnic Arts Project collection
By: collected by the American Folklife Center for the Illinois Arts Council
Contributors: American Folklife Center; Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress); Illinois Arts Council
Published: 1976
Language: eng
Number of pages: 13000
Subjects: Croatian Americans; Lithuanian Americans; Religious life and customs; Music; Puerto Ricans; Danish Americans; Slovak Americans; Ukrainian Americans; Greek Americans; Community life; Folklore; African Americans; Macedonian Americans; Swedish Americans; Irish Americans; Norwegian Americans; Polish Americans; Social life and customs; Chinese Americans; Korean Americans; Czech Americans; Ethnic arts; Slovenian Americans; Folk music; Black Dance; Cuban Americans; German Americans; Jews; Indians of North America; Dance; Serbian Americans; Field recordings; Hispanic Americans; Japanese Americans; Finnish Americans; Italian Americans; Austrian Americans
Other titles: Report on the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project.
Description: The collection consists of sound recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, videorecordings, publications, ephemera, administrative files, and field notes related to the 1977 Chicago Ethnic Arts Project field survey. Materials were collected from 1976-1981, mostly during fieldwork by fourteen folklorists in 1977. The final project report presented to the Illinois Arts Council summarized the current conditions and folk arts needs in these communities. Materials from post-project activities such as workshops in the ethnic communities and a traveling photographic exhibit by Jonas Dovydenas are also included.
Notes: Photographs and slides provide some documentation of the following dance activities: African-American performance group and social dancing, Japanese folk dancing, German performance group folk dancing, Jewish wedding reception dancing, Hispanic social dancing, Lithuanian social dancing, Polish social dancing and children's performance, and Croatian and Serbian social dancing and folk dance performance.

Two videocassettes are related to the photographic exhibition by Jonas Dovydenas, "Inside Our Houses, Outside Our Windows;" one includes remarks by Dovydenas on the Project; one was used in the photo exhibition at the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January, 1981.

Access restrictions apply; some or all content stored offsite. Please contact the Folklife Reading Room before requesting materials:  folklife@loc.gov ; 202-707-5510.

Duplication of the collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

The Chicago Ethnic Arts Project survey was conducted in 1977 by the American Folklife Center at the request of the Illinois Arts Council to assess and document the status of ethnic art traditions in more than twenty ethnic communities in Chicago.

In English, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovenian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

Collection guide available in the Folklife Reading Room and online via the American Folklife Center web pages.