young innovators who created this distinctive sound of the 

 1930s, and musicians of the Kiezmer revival. The concert was 

 supported by Friends of the Festival, the Ruth Mott Fund, 

 and The Recordings Industries Music Performance Trust 

 Funds. 



As we have seen in the past, Festival programs do not always 

 end on the Mall in Washington. This year, the 1997 Mississip- 

 pi Delta program was restaged in May in Greenville, Missis- 

 sippi, and the Wisconsin program was remounted in August 

 in Madison. The Philippine program continued with a small 

 group of performers traveling to Hawai'i to participate in 

 Philippine Centennial celebrations at the Honolulu Academy 

 of Arts, and exhibit signs were shipped to Manila for a display 

 mounted in the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In addi- 

 tion to program outreach, the research that went into all four 

 Festival programs also remained back home, in the form of 

 contributing fieldwork and Festival documentation to an ex- 

 isting or new archive, as well as leaving behind a group of 

 people trained in fieldwork skills. 



Folkways Recordings celebrated a banner year with the win- 

 ning of two Grammy Awards and with the observance of its 

 50th anniversary. The very large reissue project that produced 

 the boxed set of six compact discs, ample documentation, and 

 a CD-ROM track on an enhanced CD — the Anthology of 

 American Folk Music — received two Grammy Awards in the 

 categories of "Best Liner Notes" and "Best Historical Album" 

 in February. A few months later, on May 1, a gala concert in 

 Carnegie Hall marked the 50th year of the founding of 

 Folkways Records. Ossie Davis and Theodore Bikel served as 

 masters of ceremonies, and performers included Bernice 

 Johnson Reagon, Dar Williams, Mickey Hart, Ella Jenkins, 

 Los Pleneros de la 21, Lucinda Williams, the Mahogany Brass 

 Band and Norman Dixon's Untouchable Secondliners, the 

 New Lost City Ramblers, Pete Seeger, Ralph Stanley, the 

 SNCC Freedom Singers, Toshi Reagon, and Ulali. The con- 

 cert was supported by BMI (The American Performance 

 Rights Organization), Columbia Records and Sony Music 

 Entertainment, KOCH International, Smithsonian Magazine, 

 and TRO (The Richmond Organization). The Festival also 

 celebrared Folkways at 50 with three concerts. A children's 

 matinee featured Ella Jenkins and Larry Long with children 

 from rural schools in Alabama. "Folkways Founders" fearured 

 Arlo Guthrie, Toshi Reagon, Josh White, Jr., and The Willie 

 Foster Blues Band, musicians who have carried on the tradi- 

 tions of Folkways artists Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Josh 

 White, and Sonny Terry — recognized this year with stamps is- 

 sued by the U.S. Postal Service. The third Folkways concert, 

 "Heartbeat," honored Native American Women singers from 

 across the continent and celebrated the release of a new 

 Folkways album. These concerts were supported by The 

 Recording Industries Music Performance Trust Funds. 



Other Center projects reflect ongoing collaborations with 

 communities and individuals. The Latin American Youth Cen- 

 ter, in partnership with the Washington metropolitan area 

 Latino community, the Historical Society of Washington, 



D.C., and the Smithsonian Institution, recently created the 

 Latino Community Cultural Heritage Center (LCCHC). The 

 mission of LCCHC is to research, exhibit, and preserve the 

 history and culture of the Washington Latino community. 

 Several Smithsonian units have been collaborating on the 

 inaugural exhibit scheduled to open in the spring of 1999. 

 The project was partially supported by grants from the DC. 

 Humanities Council and the Smithsonian Educational Out- 

 reach Fund to develop educational materials to complement 

 the exhibit. The curatorial team includes staff from the Cen- 

 ter for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies and other 

 Smithsonian offices, Latin American Youth Center staff and 

 interns, Historical Society staff, local researchers, and com- 

 munity advisory committee members. The African Im- 

 migrant Folklife Study continues to work with African 

 immigrants and organizations. A steering committee was 

 formed ro bring together African immigrants and other 

 Washingtonians for exchange and dialogue between new and 

 established African communities in the United States through 

 research-based educational and cultural programs. The travel- 

 ing exhibition "Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures of 

 the Americas" is organized jointly by the Center and the 

 Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and is 

 scheduled to begin traveling in the spring of 1999. The exhibi- 

 tion addresses five centuries of ideas and experience reflecring 

 a legacy of freedom, survival, and self-determination through 

 contemporary objects, photos, text, and quotes. 



Collaboration with teachers, with Festival staff and partici- 

 pants, and with the Smithsonian Office of Education culminated 

 in the fifth year of the Center's teacher's seminar. "Bringing Folk- 

 life into Your Classroom: A Multicultural Learning Experience" 

 drew upon the Festival as a "living laboratory" for using multi- 

 cultural resources and folklife techniques in the K-12 classroom. 

 During the seminar, which is administered by the Office of 

 Education and taught by Center education staff, Washington- 

 area teachers tap their own cultural backgrounds, study the cul- 

 tures featured at the Festival, and learn about the research-based 

 methods of interpretarion and representation presented at the 

 Festival. By the end of the five days, teachers must oudine a 

 practical plan for using in their classrooms what they have 

 learned. The seminar brought together a record number of 

 teachers (18, in addition to several observers or auditors) and 

 hopefully it will lead to the ultimate collaboration of teachers, 

 tradition bearers, and srudents. 



Hirsbhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 



James T. Demetrion, Director 



The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, rhe Smithson- 

 ian Institution's museum of modern and contemporary art, is 

 committed to increasing the awareness and understanding of 



57 



