Making the Most of Opportunities

Collaborate: The partners helped shape the rural auto tours in Washington. WSAC’s goal was refined by WSDOT’s interest in focusing the tours along specific corridors versus broad regions. The DOT provided a level of expertise with the mapping of resources that would have been difficult to achieve by the Folk Arts Program. On the Olympic Peninsula, the U.S. Forest Service’s participation through Rural Community Assistance funding ensured that the tour focuses on the significance of wood and timber-dependent lifestyles. Ongoing support from the National Endowment for the Arts has also played a critical role.

Find the Fit between the Community and Tourism: Lund literally took to the streets, visiting museums, radio stations, parks, bars and workplaces to find his subjects for the tours. In one community after another, he talked to the locals, asked who had folkways to share, or songs to sing, stories to tell. It was an organic process that relied heavily on the willingness of people to participate, and the information found in one locale often led him to the next. Thus, the shape of the tour route at times was determined by his subjects, while keeping within a predetermined framework for the overall tour.

Make Sites and Programs Come Alive: The tape tours include oral histories and interviews with local folk artists and often feature obscure art forms and cultural traditions. For visitors who don’t have the time to seek out locals, the tapes help them gain a better understanding of unique cultural heritage traditions. “In Soap Lake, in the center of the state, I heard an astonishingly beautiful Russian choir at the Slavic Brethren Church,” says Lund. “They are an economically stressed community, yet the voices of the people are filled with hope and wonder. It was a fantastic surprise and one I was delighted to find and share with travelers.”

Focus on Quality and Authenticity: In sifting through a vast amount of information that can be included in each tour, a folklorist selects information that provides an accurate representation of the diverse folk traditions along each route. Quality is essential, and only clear recordings and high quality photographs are included in the final product.

Preserve and Protect Resources: Not only do the tape/booklet tours capture and acknowledge significant Washington state folk art traditions, the research preceding the production of the tours results in thousands of documents, photographs and a wealth of audio-taped information. What can’t be included in the tours due to space constraints becomes a valuable resource, managed by WSAC, for teachers, researchers, and others who wish to trace the history and heritage of the state.