Building a Tradition
Last fall, UMBC and the Maryland Traditions program announced an exploratory partnership for the 2010-2011 academic year. Now, as that year is coming to a close, Maryland Traditions and UMBC are looking back on a year of working together—and are excited about what has been accomplished.
Maryland Traditions is a statewide program run through the Maryland State Arts Council that supports efforts to discover, share, preserve and sustain traditional arts and culture. Folklorists in the program work directly with individuals and cultural institutions to encourage the vitality of living traditions and folk arts.
Through the partnership, Elaine Eff, co-director of Maryland Traditions, has been installed in the American studies department as a folklorist-in-residence. If the partnership is deemed a success, Eff will continue working with UMBC to sustain living traditions throughout the state. “Every accomplishment we have here has tremendous value in building towards the future,” she said.
Since Eff arrived on campus, she has been busily finding ways to build and nurture relationships in the university and beyond. She co-taught, with Nicole King, assistant professor of American studies, a humanities scholars class on Maryland traditions; connected UMBC students with internships; worked with the Orser Center for the Study of Place, Community and Culture to develop relationships with neighborhood organizations; planned a Humanities Forum panel, which will take place on March 30; and, most recently, organized a film series on Baltimore traditions that will be shown over several weeks in April.
“Elaine is such a force, and since she’s been here she’s been meeting with people and building coalitions,” said King. “She’s bringing the energy of the public programming realm here to the university, where things are typically much slower.”
King also said that Eff’s connections have been invaluable to the department. “If we have these relationships with outside organizations and people, we don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time we go to work with the community,” she said. “When I have a question about Maryland or something related to material culture, I can go to her and immediately get pointers and starting places.”
In addition to providing UMBC with valuable connections, Eff said that she has discovered that UMBC’s campus holds a variety of cultures that she hopes to develop relationships with. “One of the things that has impressed me is the rich ethnic diversity on campus. We need to figure out how to get our program to intersect with these programs, because these kids are on the ground and these are communities that already exist,” she said.
Eff hopes to inspire members of the UMBC community to connect with Maryland Traditions on March 30, when the Humanities Forum will present the “Meet Maryland Traditions” panel at 4 p.m. in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery. In addition to Eff and Cliff Murphy, co-director of Maryland Traditions, folklorists from throughout the state will be on hand to discuss how they sustain living traditions. Also featured will be jazz pianist Lafayette Gilchrist ’92, Africana studies, who is a graduate of Maryland Traditions’ master and apprentice program.
“I’m hoping that we can get people from the community to come to the humanities forum and say, ‘Oh gosh, look at all that we have in common,’” Eff said, pointing out that the panel will be an opportunity to see the diverse range of work supported by Maryland Traditions.
Hopefully, UMBC will be a partner in showcasing that diversity for years to come.
(3/18/11)
