Folk art
Art made within traditional communities, often by self-taught makers, that reflects local customs, beliefs, materials, and everyday life.
Folk culture: Shared practices, beliefs, stories, and customs transmitted within communities, often across generations. Folk art takes its subjects, meanings, and conventions from this wider cultural life.
Quilting: The practice of joining layers of fabric with stitching to make blankets and other textiles. Community quilt-making can preserve family histories, regional patterns, and shared labor.
Intangible cultural heritage: Practices, expressions, knowledge, and skills that communities recognize as cultural heritage. Folk art traditions can depend on preserving shared knowledge as well as finished objects.
American folk art: Art made in the United States within vernacular traditions, including painting, sculpture, and decorative objects. Its collecting history helped establish folk art as a distinct category in American museums.
Oral tradition: The transmission of stories, knowledge, and customs through spoken performance across generations. Stories and beliefs passed orally often become subjects and symbols in folk art.
Amish furniture: Furniture made within Amish communities, often marked by functional design and restrained decoration. It shows how religious values and local craft traditions shape domestic objects.
Cultural appropriation: The adoption of cultural elements by outsiders, especially when unequal power or disregard is involved. Collecting or imitating community art raises questions about ownership, attribution, and control.
Henry Darger: An American writer and artist known for an extensive, privately created illustrated narrative. His posthumously discovered work became central to debates about folk and outsider art.
Craft: The skilled making of useful or decorative objects by hand or with simple tools. Folk art often joins expressive imagery to practical objects and handmade techniques.
Santos: Devotional images of saints made in Puerto Rico, traditionally carved from wood. These figures combine Catholic devotion with local materials and visual traditions.