1. Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Welcoming visitors since 1953, this museum houses the world’s largest collection of folk art with more than 150,000 artifacts documenting cultural identity, traditions and aesthetics from around the world. Children are drawn to the Tree of Life lounge, a newly renovated area encouraging imaginative play with discovery boxes, miniature tree houses, puppets, and a make-a-tree activity as well as docent-led art and puppet-making sessions. Throughout the museum, visitors are invited to contemplate, create, and interact with folk art to better understand the treasures within.
Admission is free for children 16 and under.
Each year the city of Santa Fe also plays host to the International Folk Art Market. The event seeks to support and create economic opportunities for and with folk artists from around the world in an effort to celebrate and preserve folk art traditions. This year’s event, featuring 162 artists from 52 countries, is scheduled for July 6-9, 2023.
For more: www.internationalfolkart.org ; www.Folkartmarket.org.
2. American Folk Art Museum, New York.
This important museum’s collection is called an “unabashed song of praise to the nation,” reflecting the idea that folk art is often patriotic or created to commemorate an important event in history. With more than 7,000 objects on hand, the museum celebrates the creative talents of individuals with little or no formal training. View traditional and contemporary artistic expressions including drawings, tinsel art, quilts and painting. The collection includes works of art from four centuries and nearly every continent — from compelling portraits and dazzling quilts to powerful works by living artists in a variety of mediums.
For more: www.folkartmuseum.org
3. International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska
Visitors to this museum have access to the largest publicly held quilt collection in the world, thanks to a local couple who donated their own 1,000-piece quilt collection. Your family will learn about hand and machine quilt-making traditions and objects used in this folk art. The more than 3,500-piece collection represents work found in 30 countries over four centuries, including doll, French, black-American and Amish crib quilts. Visit now through the summer to view a group of appliqued and inscribed album quilts made in Ohio’s Miami Valley between 1888 and 1918. The albums were given as gifts to young adults to celebrate life’s passages and share folk art designs, fabric and construction methods. The collection was accumulated and researched by scholar Sue Cummings over a 35-year period and comprises one of the most unusual and significant regional quilt styles known.
For more: www.quiltstudy.org
4. The Holiday Folk Fair, Milwaukee.
Song, dance, food and crafts dominate this five-day festival that celebrates cultures from around the world. The gathering — held each year on the weekend before Thanksgiving at the Wisconsin Exposition Center — is considered the country’s largest indoor multicultural festival. Designed to encourage peace through respect and understanding, the fair includes dancers from more than 30 ethnic groups and offers student workshops and language lessons. Children five and under and military personnel with a military ID card are admitted at no charge.
For more: www.folkfair.org
5. Shelburne Museum, Burlington, Vermont
Designed to encourage visitors to discover and explore, the northern New England Museum includes 39 distinct structures on 45 acres. Expect to be charmed by an ever changing display of the whimsical mixed with objects from everyday America as well as a Shaker design Round Barn, 220-foot sidewheel steamboat and 22 gardens. Families are often lured to the Circus Building and carousel upon arrival. Inside the specifically designed building, kids of all ages will be delighted to find the 518-foot-long, hand-carved miniature Arnold Circus Parade, which stretches the full length of the building. The unique structure is also home to hand-painted carousel figures including horses, tigers, and giraffes crafted by the renowned Gustav Dentzel Carousel Company. Visit now through October 22, 2023 to experience Object/s of Play: The Work of Cas Holman and Karen Hewitt, which explores the creative processes of two award-winning American toy designers — a generation apart — who interpret the concept of open-ended play in their own unique ways.
For more: https://shelburnemuseum.org
(Lynn O’Rourke Hayes (LOHayes.com) is an author, family travel expert and enthusiastic explorer. Gather more travel intel on Twitter @lohayes, Facebook, or via FamilyTravel.com)
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