TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

The Folklore Project offers technical assistance to Philadelphia-area grassroots groups and traditional artists. Attend one of our free workshops for hands-on help.

Keep reading. Whether you attend our workshops our not, we have produced some materials that can help. Many of our handouts from workshops can be found right here, as well:

A brief list of resource agencies, funding programs, and other sources of assistance for community-based traditional artists and folklife organizations in the Philadelphia area. This list contains capsule descriptions of funders, general resources, and some workshops and training sessions, with links. You can use this to get access to grants: often the applications are online. Or you can use this to call funders for more information.

An abbreviated calendar of funding deadlines for some folklore and folks-arts friendly grants agencies in our region, including funders whose grant applications we teach about in our workshops. Use this to remind yourself of approaching deadlines.

A letter to a new funder, with suggestions about ways in which folk and traditional artists and grassroots groups are traditionally at a disadvantage when judged by terms not reflective of culturally-appropriate values and criteria. Helpful in identifying common impediments, and suggesting strategies. Useful for community-based artists who want to apply to funders, and for funders who want to reach culturally- and economically- diverse communities. (Good to read when you are struggling with an application: a reminder that you aren't alone, and that the problems you are having aren't yours alone, either!)

A basic overview: what are folk arts. (From our folk arts education section). To help you think about how you might describe (or understand) your work.

An essay on the state of folk arts in Philadelphia in 2004, to give you a sense of what traditional artists face. Based on conversations with PFP constituents. (Another document so you know you aren't alone!)

Samples of grant applications, prepared by the Fund for Folk Culture.

A chart of basic materials that you will most likely need to develop for grant applications, with examples of what 5 local funders require. And more useful basic materials on the logic of application elements, writing a project narrative, and writing an artist bios, from our workshops.

Grant-writing information and tips on how-to: links to other sites.

Links to a range of other sites: folklife, community cultural groups, and more.

More information, in response to common questions that we field: where to find places to perform, donations of software and furniture, artists' retreats and more. . . .

Some thoughts about the digital divide. If you are here, visiting our website, then these thoughts may not apply. PFP is concerned, however, with the situation of the many folk and traditional artists and grassroots cultural workers who don't have access to (or facility with) computers and the internet. Have thoughts about this? We'd like to hear from you, as we plan next steps in our technical assistance program.

A brief overview of our technical assistance program: why we do what we do.

And finally, for those of you who are trying to find folk and traditional artists, we offer a brief questionnaire, which gives us (and artists) a better sense of your needs, as a first step to helping you with a referral.