-
Title
-
Virginia Scheer, November 21, 2024
-
interviewee
-
Virginia Scheer
-
interviewer
-
Tonette Seitz
-
Date
-
November 24, 2024
-
Subject
-
Artist
-
Catskills
-
Catskills Folk Connection
-
Cultural Journalism
-
Dance
-
Folklore
-
Folklorist
-
Folk Art
-
Folk Arts Roundtable
-
Foxfire Project
-
Lyceum
-
Metal
-
New York Folklore
-
Stone
-
Tradition Bearers
-
Wood
-
Description
-
Virginia Scheer is a folklorist with a long history of service to her community through her work as the Director of Manhattan Country School Farm and co-founding the folklife center, Catskills Folk Connections (CFC) in 2007. Virginia, most commonly referred to as Ginny, has spent much of her life working as a folklorist and earned a master’s degree at Western Kentucky University on the subject later in life. Ginny has also been an active participant of the Folk Arts Roundtable with the New York Folklore Society (NYFS).
Located in southeastern New York State, the Catskills is a region rich in history and culture with a wide variety of folk arts, spanning from dances and music to stonework, woodwork, fiber work, and more. The Catskills has nurtured the development of artists, musicians, and writers for generations, especially during its golden era in the 19th century when many were drawn to the Catskills’ lush and wild natural beauty. As it were, Ginny and Karyl Eaglefeathers, at the behest of Robert Baron, were inspired to start the Catskills Folk Music Project in 2007 to celebrate the Catskills' traditional folk arts, and this would eventually become the CFC. Since then, Ginny has helped to bring greater attention to the Catskills' unique folk-art traditions and culture through exhibits CFC puts on every two years. This year’s exhibit was “Folk Art in Fiber,” featuring a variety of skilled quilters from the Catskills area with the exhibit just finishing its run in November.
Ginny starts off by describing her beginnings as a folklorist and then speaks at length about the different exhibits CFC has put on over the years and provides many detailed anecdotes about different Catskills folk artists and their work. She also gives insightful commentary on the nature of folklore as a discipline in relation to history and discusses the difficulties and value of Cultural Journalism through how it preserves folk life traditions and popular memory. Ginny speaks about NYFS’s support for CFC as well, with specific focus on her participation in the Folk Arts Roundtable and how that has helped her work and to grow as a folklorist.
I interviewed Ginny at the Catskills Center for Conservation and Development in Arkville, New York. Ginny quotes several speakers when telling stories in the interview, so dialogue quotes have been marked with quotation marks for readability. Ginny also had a program folder on hand for “Folk Art in Fiber,” which provided information on each of the artists featured in the exhibit. She refers to this folder a few times during the interview. Lastly, because the center is located on a busy country highway, cars and trucks can be heard occasionally in the background throughout the interview.
-
Time Summary
-
Track 1, 0:00 - Inspiration to be a folklorist
-
Track 1, 4:04 - Folklorist training
-
Track 1, 7:21 - Inspiration for starting Catskills Folk Connections
-
Track 1, 14:57 - Start of Catskills Folk Connections (CFC) Exhibits
-
Track 1, 16:15 - Catskills Folk Lyceum
-
Track 1, 18:14 - CFC exhibit for painting
-
Track 1, 24:06 - CFC exhibit for Folk Art and Stone
-
Track 1, 24:51 - CFC exhibit for Folk Art and Wood
-
Track 2, 3:05 - CFC exhibit for Folk Art and Metal
-
Track 2, 9:10 - Difference between Folklore and History
-
Track 2, 13:30 - Cultural Journalism
-
Track 2, 20:25 - Folk Arts Roundtable
-
Track 2, 24:37 - Different types of folklore
-
Track 2, 27:14 - Fine Art vs. Folk Art
-
Track 3, 00:56 - New York Folklore Society
-
Creator
-
Tonette Seitz
-
Publisher
-
Cooperstown Graduate Program, State University of New York at Oneonta
-
Rights
-
Cooperstown Graduate Association, Cooperstown, NY
-
Format
-
3.9mb
-
Language
-
en-US
