Heritage Friction/Heritage Values and the Work of Folklore

Location

Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094

Presentation Type

Presentation

Start Date

18-9-2018 5:00 PM

Description

In Museum Frictions, Ivan Karp, Corinne A. Kratz, and other scholars explore controversies within the exhibition of history and culture. They show how a variety of contentious issues can yield negative consequences, but what these writers term museum friction can also be considered a lively resource for developing creative and cultural responsive displays of heritage. Likewise, the wider discourse on heritage is rife with controversial and contested ideas about history and culture. This multifaceted discourse includes a parallel concept that I term heritage friction. How does the vibrant quality of heritage friction relate to the representation of heritage? What values are at stake in the processes of presenting heritage to the public? In these spheres, a consideration of heritage friction is especially relevant to wider scholarship on heritage values—the ideals that are at play when historical and cultural resources are constructed and presented as heritage. Case studies of public folklore work show how heritage friction as well as heritage values are useful for exploring the vital qualities of preserving and interpreting the past through public programming. Vernacular architecture, folk and traditional music, and an array of expressions of traditional culture all serve as heritage resources within the study of folklore. In researching, documenting, and presenting both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage elements of communities, public folklorists, ethnomusicologists, historic preservationists, and other cultural specialists curate diverse resources, often within the wider rubric of heritage preservation. How these culture brokers manage a variety of curatorial processes and the potential heritage frictions suggests an engagement with key heritage values that are integral to making the past meaningful in the present.

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Convocation Credit: Society and the Arts and Sciences

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Sep 18th, 5:00 PM

Heritage Friction/Heritage Values and the Work of Folklore

Janet Ayers Academic Center, JAAC 4094

In Museum Frictions, Ivan Karp, Corinne A. Kratz, and other scholars explore controversies within the exhibition of history and culture. They show how a variety of contentious issues can yield negative consequences, but what these writers term museum friction can also be considered a lively resource for developing creative and cultural responsive displays of heritage. Likewise, the wider discourse on heritage is rife with controversial and contested ideas about history and culture. This multifaceted discourse includes a parallel concept that I term heritage friction. How does the vibrant quality of heritage friction relate to the representation of heritage? What values are at stake in the processes of presenting heritage to the public? In these spheres, a consideration of heritage friction is especially relevant to wider scholarship on heritage values—the ideals that are at play when historical and cultural resources are constructed and presented as heritage. Case studies of public folklore work show how heritage friction as well as heritage values are useful for exploring the vital qualities of preserving and interpreting the past through public programming. Vernacular architecture, folk and traditional music, and an array of expressions of traditional culture all serve as heritage resources within the study of folklore. In researching, documenting, and presenting both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage elements of communities, public folklorists, ethnomusicologists, historic preservationists, and other cultural specialists curate diverse resources, often within the wider rubric of heritage preservation. How these culture brokers manage a variety of curatorial processes and the potential heritage frictions suggests an engagement with key heritage values that are integral to making the past meaningful in the present.