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Smithsonian FAQ
What is the Smithsonian?
- The Smithsonian Institution (“SI”) is the largest museum and research organisation in the world. It consists of 19 national museums of the United States, the national zoo, 9 research centres, 152 affiliate museums, and the world’s largest travelling exhibition service. It houses approximately 136m objects, works of art, artefacts and natural history specimens. The Smithsonian museums and travelling exhibitions, free to the public, host approximately 24 million visitors annually.
- In addition to museums and travelling exhibitions, the SI conducts research around the world on topics ranging from astrophysics to tropical biology. The SI offers a great deal of educational and outreach programming. This is delivered through its Web site – with over 119.2 million visits, Smithsonian magazine – with 8 million monthly readers, more than 1,500 lectures, classes, performances and public programmes for the 55,000 members of the Smithsonian Associates, and hundreds of Smithsonian Study Tours.
What is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival?
- The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is the largest annual cultural event in the U.S. capital and is widely recognised as a significant public educational platform for participants and their homeland
- The Festival has been voted the top tourist attraction in America in a survey of regional tourist bureau.
- 2007 will be the 41st Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
- It was started in 1967 with a goal of highlighting the living cultural heritage of communities across America, and their roots in other nations. Since then, the Festival has evolved into a two-week programme of demonstrations, events and performances, with an emphasis on community based music, dance and song, celebrations, arts, crafts, story telling, vernacular architecture, culinary and work culture. The Festival has been a world leader in examining not only long-lived rural traditions, but also the contemporary traditions of cities and neighbourhoods, and of modern working class, professional, and high tech occupations.
When and where does it take place?
- The Festival runs during the last week in June and the first week in July, coinciding with the American July Fourth Independence Day celebrations. It takes place on The National Mall, Washington D.C. in the green space between the Washington Monument and the US Capitol.
- This is the height of the tourist season in D.C. and, combined with its central location and free admission, the Festival typically welcomes more than a million visitors each summer.
Who is featured in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival?
- Each Festival is divided into three or four “programmes” – typically a country or province, a region or U.S. state, and a thematic focus. Northern Ireland will be such a programme at the 2007 Festival. Each programme has its own distinct area – taking up the equivalent of two or three football fields, its own participants, and its own structures. Pavilions are set up on the National Mall, surrounded on both sides by SI’s constituent museums. Each exhibition typically contains two or three major performance spaces of varying sizes, smaller tents for crafts and artisanal demonstrations and a food concession,
- The 2007 Folklife Festival will also include the State of Virginia (celebrating the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown) and the countries of the Mekong River Region.
What happens at the Festival?
- The focus of the Festival is living cultural traditions and the people who practice them. Performances and demonstrations occur daily and simultaneously from 11am to 5.30pm each Festival day. There are also evening concerts and dance parties from 5.30pm to 9pm. Audience questions, interaction, and participation are strongly encouraged.
- Scholars from the featured countries, regions or states provide introductory and background information, translations and interpretations to assure the high educational quality of the programme.
- Festival presentations are supplemented by museum quality signs, a programme, catalogues, guides, and other materials to help increase understanding and appreciation of the featured cultures.
- The Festival seeks to encourage respect for diverse people and their cultural traditions.
- The Festival also promotes cultural goods and services through sales of food through its concessions, and sales of recordings, arts and crafts, books and other materials through its Festival Marketplace.
- The Festival provides a unique opportunity to market and promote Northern Ireland through its people and culture – music, song, dance, story telling, crafts, culinary and workers’ culture.
- It promotes the economic growth of traditional cultural industries by assisting them in reaching new markets and making their products economically viable.
- Some participating nations and regions have broadcast Festival programming back to their home country, or have remounted aspects of the Festival once they arrive home.
Who will participate in the Festival?
- A typical Smithsonian Festival will have between 80 and 120 participants from each country, state or region represented
- The participants will typically be singers, dancers, storytellers, craft workers, cooks, artisans, sports people, and representatives of occupations associated with the participating country.
- The Smithsonian curators select the participants for the Festival on the basis of the research conducted in the year or so prior to the event. The final selection will be made in conjunction with NI’s curatorial group.
Who attends the Smithsonian Folklife Festival?
- Typically, over 1 million visitors from the United States and the rest of the world. About 50% will be from the East Coast, about 45% from other parts of the U.S., and about 5% international.
- A culturally diverse audience with a broader demographic than those attending the museums.
- Visits average about 4 hours. Visitor rankings of their Festival experience typically outpace all of the other Smithsonian museums, with over 80% rating their Festival experience superior to excellent.
Membership of the NI Steering Groups
- The Leadership Group is co-chaired by Dr Alan Gillespie, Chair of Ulster Bank Ltd and Nigel Hamilton, Head of Northern Ireland Civil Service.
- A Co-ordinating Group led by DCAL and including DETI, DARD, NITB, Arts Council and NI Bureau will ensure that the Festival is adequately funded and supported and will advance NI’s strategic needs.
- A second steering group – the Curatorial Group will support and advise the SI team with respect to research and content of the Festival programme. Again, this will be led by DCAL and as well as representatives of the organisations named above will also include TourismIreland; InvestNI; Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland; Ulster Scots Agency; Foras na Gaeilge; Environment and Heritage Service; Sports Council; British Council; Public Records Office of NI; NI Events Co.; Arts and Business. This group will expand over the coming months to include representatives from a wider range of organisations.
What are the benefits of participating?
- The Festival provides an opportunity to prove to the world that Northern Ireland is a fascinating place to visit, to learn about and to live in, and to showcase NI as a vibrant, unique and rich community with much to offer the world.
- Participation represents an exciting public relations opportunity by promoting a positive image of Northern Ireland and increasing opportunities for artisans and performers.
- Partnering with a prestigious organisation can act as a ‘door-opener’ to other opportunities.
- Many of the states and regions taking part have reported improved tourism turnover of between 10 – 18%. Even an increase of 10% in the number of North American visitors to NI could result in an extra spend of £2.9m p.a. in the local economy.
- It is an opportunity for the people of Northern Ireland to work together on a major project.
- If devolution returns, it will provide an opportunity for NI politicians to re-establish themselves on the US and world stage.