Center for Southern Folklore News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 12, 2006
Center for Southern Folklore
Receives Record Grants for
Multimedia Archives Digitization
ANNOUNCEMENT
“We are extremely pleased to report that The Assisi Foundation of Memphis, The Plough Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts have awarded the Center for Southern Folklore $485,000 in grants to digitize our vast Multimedia Archives,” announced John Dudas, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Center for Southern Folklore. This includes a 4-year grant from the Plough Foundation for $375,000 a $100,000 grant from the Assisi Foundation for 2006-2007 and a $10,000 grant from NEA for 2006.
“We are honored to accept these grants which will allow the Center to develop books, CD’s and exhibits, which will provide the public access to the vast treasures of the archives. These grants provide a solid beginning for the project, which will require four years and $1.4 million to complete,” says Dudas.
Jan Young, Executive Director of The Assisi Foundation of Memphis, says, “It has been exciting to partner with the Center to develop the Archives. We trust that once digitized, the collection will enrich the understanding of the cultural and social histories, folklife and music of this region as well as ensure its availability for future generations. In making our grant we have challenged the Center to match our contribution by raising $100,000 in new monies by May 31, 2007.
Rick Masson, Executive Director of the The Plough Foundation, says, “By digitizing these valuable archives, educators and the general public will have the tools to make these voices and images available through the products the Center develops, exhibits, and web based technology.”
Judy Peiser, co-founder and Executive Producer of the Center for Southern Folklore, thanked The Plough Foundation, The Assisi Foundation of Memphis, and the National Endowment for the Arts for honoring the Memphis-based non-profit with these major grants.
“Thanks also to our Board and to our supporters, whose hard work and dedication provided the framework for the project,” says Peiser. “We celebrate these grants with our staff past and present, and honor all those men and women who spent hours sharing their lives and dreams with us. We dedicate this project to them.”
MULTIMEDIA ARCHIVES
The Center for Southern Folklore’s Multimedia Archives include photographs and audio recordings from its annual Memphis Music & Heritage Festival, a world-class collection of folk art, including sculptures, paintings, and quilts, a music library, and the unprecedented photography collection of the late Rev. L.O. Taylor, recently exhibited at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. With over 2,000 recordings and over 100,000 images, the Center’s Multimedia Archives represent a major voice and vision of American music and social history.
Beginning in 2005, the Center for Southern Folklore embarked on a serious mission: To secure funding to digitize its Multimedia Archives, including the Rev. L.O. Taylor Collection, which captures the major elements of African American life in an era spanning more than three decades, encapsulating two World Wars and the height of segregation, just before the nation’s struggle for Civil Rights began.
When Rev. Taylor died, in 1977, his life’s work was nearly lost, until a neighbor, Lula Adams, alerted the Center for Southern Folklore to the vast multimedia collection – some 30,000 feet of film, 100 hand cut 78-rpm discs, 7,000 negatives, and 500 prints – which sat decaying in his attic darkroom. With the help of professionals at the Library of Congress, Historic Films, and the Memphis Public Library the Center has embarked on this major project for the Center’s Archives.
Although the collection is not currently accessible to the general public, 30 of Rev. Taylor’s photographs were recently exhibited at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art as part of Pictures from Home: Six African American Studio Photographers in the South, 1900-1950, curated by Ellen Fleurov, president of Crossroads Traveling Exhibitions. Selected reproductions of those images and more are available for purchase at the Center for Southern Folklore’s gift shop, and at its kiosk at Memphis International Airport.
In addition to the Rev. L.O. Taylor Collection, the Center’s Multimedia Archives are a vast storehouse of original artwork, music, narratives and much more. They include virtually unknown 78 disc recordings by Memphis’ own Rev. L.O. Taylor recording gospel choirs, R&B bandleader Tuff Green recording his group’s newest tunes, jug band performers like Will Shade and Laura Dukes, blues crooner A.D. “Gatemouth” Moore, sidemen and women like saxophonists Fred Ford and Evelyn Young, and legendary performers like Rufus and Carla Thomas, among others.
Also featured in the archives are photos and objects documenting the careers of such prominent Memphians as Lucie Campbell, the music director of the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress, who penned such roiling gospel songs as “Touch Me, Lord Jesus,” “He Understands; He’ll Say ‘Well Done,’” “Something Within,” and “Jesus Gave Me Water;” Rev. William Herbert Brewster, a protégé of Campbell’s, who composed hymns like “Move on up a Little Higher” (the first million-dollar seller in the gospel genre), “How I Got Over,” and “Surely God Is Able.”
DIGITIZATION PLANS
From 2006 to 2009, the Center's major goal is to transfer all media documents (films, tapes, videos) to digital formats and to organize the materials for easy access and use. In 2006 the Center will set up a digital sound lab to accompany the image digitization lab, already in use. Throughout the next four years, the Center plans to release books, DVDs, and CDs of multimedia materials culled from the archives for public consumption.
CHALLENGE
“With the support of The Assisi Foundation of Memphis, The Plough Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts the Center has taken a major step in preserving our region’s cultural history. We look to individuals, foundations and corporations to help raise the additional $915,000 needed over the 4-year life of the project ” said John Dudas To make donations, or to obtain more information, visit the Center for Southern Folklore’s website, www.southernfolklore.com.
To learn more about the helping complete this project to digitize Center’s Multimedia Archives and the Rev. L.O. Taylor Collection, contact Judy Peiser at the Center for Southern Folklore, 525-3655 or queenbee@southernfolklore.org.
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posted on Tuesday, January 09, 2007
SCROLL DOWN Y'ALL
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posted on Saturday, January 06, 2007
December 28th Holiday Blues Show with Daddy Mack Blues Band
Folklore Store 7:00 PMAll Ages Show123 Main Street @ The Peabody Place Trolley Stop"Cool Place to hear Great Music!"--------------------------------------------------------------WELCOME HOLIDAY SHOPPERS! Folklore Store is OpenTuesday - Saturday (12/26-12/30)11:00 to 5:00(This Thursday until 10:00 pm.) Folk Art, Wearables, Great Music-Related Funky Chicken and King of Rock and Roll Ornaments and lots more.Shop @ the Center's online catalogorVisit with us @ the Center's Folklore StoreWe have great photographs, posters, cds, books, folk arts, T Shirts and lots more.Remember your purchase helps folk artists, craftspeople and musicians. Plus your purchase of selected items helps match a grant fromThe Assisi Foundation of Memphis. The Grant helps the Center in our goal to digitize our Multimedia Archives.Come on down!--------------------------------------------------------------MEMPHIS RHYTHMSPhotography Exhibit
January 2-14, 2007@ Theatre Memphis These photographs make great gifts and
look great in your home or office.
Folklore Store 
January 2-14, 2007