CHOICE 1997 Outstanding Academic Books This is the first full-length study in English of Japan's folk performing arts covering such topics as the different categories of presentations, public policies affecting the folk performing arts, performance events within and without communities, and the folk performing arts in literature. Throughout, it addresses issues concerning the survival and preservation of traditional culture in contemporary Japan. Once largely unknown outside of their local community settings, Japan's folk performing arts have today captured universal attention. In Japan, almost every municipality is home to one or more of the diverse dramatic, dance, narrative, and musical presentations that make up the folk performing arts. They can be seen at events that range from long-established festivals to newly created folk-culture and tourist programs. Since the 1920s, a growing body of work by folklorists, theater historians, and other academic specialists, together with literary treatment by well-known authors, brought the folk performing arts into the national cultural spotlight. The postwar Cultural Properties Protection Law conferred on them the status of legally designated cultural assets.

Throughout Massachusetts, artists carry on and revitalise deeply rooted traditions that take many expressive forms - from Native American basketry to Yankee wooden boats, Armenian lace, Chinese seals, and Irish music and dance. This illustrated volume celebrates and shares the work of a wide array of these living artists.

Some of the artists who have won a National Heritage Fellowship between 1982 and 2002: user may click on an index of names, and retrieve biographical information, photographs, voice and music clips, and/or film and video clips on each artist.

This volume celebrates the richness of folk art in Sweden, from traditional peasant art to modern design. It illustrates the many facets of Swedish style and culture, exploring the ways in which Sweden's traditional heritage and contemporary design and decorative arts are connected.

This is the most comprehensive study of such varied factors as art historical traditions and influences, the social and economic background that encouraged each of these arts, Norwegian symbolism, traditional costume, and emigration to the United States and its influence on the arts. An informative and practical discussion of Norwegian folk art collections is also included.