Oregon Folk Arts Program, Early Years, 1975-1991, 1975-1991

Oregon Folk Arts Program, Early Years is a collection of images, cassette tape recordings, books, ephemera and notes from 1988 through 1992 and included several early projects. In the beginning years, the OFP was establishing itself as a statewide folk arts program through outreach, fieldwork surveys and exhibitions. Joanne Mulcahy, the first folkife program director, founded the archives and entered those materials, although that system was completely changed years later.

The collection is a compilation of 1165 color slides and 36 B&W negatives organized into four binders. Several folklife fieldworkers documented various communities including rural and coastal Oregon, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Joanne Mulcahy's documentation includes such activities, groups, and traditions as tamale making, Ghanaian music (Obo Addy), Laotian music and dance (Lao Deum), wax flower making (Eva Castellanoz), Southeast Asian silver work, wooden toys, graffiti, the Siletz pow wow, carving, and sausage making.

In 1989 Janet Gilmore documented maritime culture in Coos Bay and general folklife North Bend, contributing pictures of canning, model boats, knot tying, and rug braiding. Also, in 1989 Melinda Hoder documented folklife in Lane and Lincoln Counties and he

In 1991, Nancy Nusz documented Klamath Indian cradleboards and other works of master artists of the early Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP.) There is also a series of slides is documentation of folklife in the eastern Oregon communities ofImn

The early years of the Oregon Folk Arts Program was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Oregon Arts Commission. At that time the program was housed at the NW Writing Institute of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.