By
BDN Staff
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
The American Folk Festival has become a wonderful part of every summer, bringing musicians from around the globe, visitors to our homes, tourists to local businesses and many of us to the music venues and food booths. Indeed, we have seen the results of the successful strategy of building a creative economy throughout our state as the result of efforts by the Maine Arts Commission and other arts organizations.
Maine people have embraced the idea of creative economy because they realize people wish to live in — and visit — a place where a rich array of arts and cultural activities are available. Arts and cultural activities attract new, innovative, educated people who then add to the economy by bringing ideas and businesses to the area. People from Maine enjoy the culture and arts of the creative economy and reap the economic benefits.
In building creative economy, the Maine Folklife Center based at the University of Maine is an important participant. The Maine Folklife Center collects and interprets the folklore, folklife and oral histories of Maine and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Our area has a rich history of folklore and traditional arts, including music, dance and storytelling; traditional crafts such as boatbuilding and basketmaking, visual arts and architecture.
But if no one would preserve them, Maine’s fascinating cultural legacies could be lost.
Center staff have ensured that the Folk Festival includes Maine’s traditional arts. Throughout the year, the Folklife Center conducts research about Maine’s folklore, gathers photographs and audio recordings, makes these available to researchers from around the world, and teaches about our culture and history in classes and through publications.
Maine’s economy is changing, and the Maine Folklife Center has been part of understanding those changes. In Brewer, the center has worked with former employees, middle school teachers and students, and the economic development office in chronicling the history of Eastern Fine Paper Co. Central to community life for more than a century, the history and folklife of the mill provide lessons to the state and nation about the manufacturing sector in Maine’s economy.
Recently, the Maine Folklife Center helped develop an educational video for Cianbro, the company planning to develop a new manufacturing facility on the Eastern Fine site, about the heritage of their venture. Cianbro recognizes that the tradition of quality work represented by more than 100 years of pulp and paper manufacturing contributes to their future success.
The Maine Folklife Center also partners with the Maine Arts Commission in identifying and supporting traditional artists in communities around the state. Whether it is a community oral history project that results in a resurgence of interest in local history, the development of exhibits and programs that bring people "home" to their town, or the support of a traditional boat builder employing three to five people, the kind of work conducted by the center feeds the economic development of communities small and large.
As the GrowSmart Brookings Report pointed out, Maine’s future depends on having a sense of community and a sense of place. To that end citizens must continue to support not only the festival, but all of the organizations that work together to identify, support and preserve the traditions we have here in Maine.
For information
about the Maine Folklife Center’s activities visit:
www.umaine.edu/folklife or call
581-1891.
Tanya Pereira is economic development specialist for the city of Brewer.