South Florida Folklife Center. Miami-Dade Folklife Survey - 1985

This series documents a seminal effort to establish institutional folklife research in South Florida in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, the Dade County Council of the Arts and Sciences, and the Historical Association of Southern Florida (now HistoryMiami Museum) began a concerted effort to establish a folklife program in South Florida. In 1985, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs a grant to conduct the first folklife survey of South Florida, the goal of which was to ascertain what expressive traditions were being practiced in South Florida’s diverse ethnic communities. The survey—conducted by Tina Bucuvalas, Nancy Nusz, and Laurie Sommers—documented a wide range of skills and art forms in local Haitian, Jamaican, Mexican, Bahamian, Cuban, and Jewish communities. Over the course of three months, the survey identified 200 folk artists in the Miami area. This initial effort provided the impetus for the creation of the South Florida Folklife Center at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Original materials from this project are held by the State Archives of Florida, including field notes, images, audiotapes, videotapes, and related media. Many of these items have been digitized and made available via the Florida Memory Project website (https://www.floridamemory.com).

Arranged into three series by format.

Originals of the materials found in this collection are held by the State Archives of Florida. Most of the resources produced by this survey have been digitized and are available onlinethrough the Florida Folklife Collectionon Florida Memory.

https://www.floridamemory.com/collections/folklife/

Finding Aid Authors: Katherine L. Fleming, David Font, Vanessa Navarro, and Katharine Labuda 2014-2016.

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