Defining ‘Folk’

The social identity of 'folk' emerged in the late 19th century in rural populaces that were subject to greater poverty and lower literacy rates. This social identity eventually broadened to represent the underclass of modern society due to the rise in popularity of Marxist theory in the academic world, which began to identify both the rural and urban poor as allied subjects of economic inequality.^[1]

In the 20th century the growth of the social sciences contributed to an expanded definition of 'folk'. By the 1960's, 'folk' groups grew to encompass multiple cultural subgroups, where any individual could belong to multiple 'folk' groups. The first of these groups is one's family, which has its own unique family folklore. Eventually, various forms of identity such as age, language, ethnicity and occupation developed separate 'Folk' groups. Thus, it is understood that folklore develops from shared identity in any social group.^[2] As pointed out by Alan Dundes, "decades of fieldwork have demonstrated that these groups do have their own folklore."^[1]

'Folklore' can include jokes, sayings and certain behaviors, always transmitted in an informal manner. It is primarily learned by observation, imitation, repetition or correction by other group members. This informal knowledge is used to confirm and re-enforce the identity of the group. It can be used both internally within the group to express their common identity, for example in an initiation ceremony for new members, or it can be used externally to differentiate the group from outsiders, like a folkdance demonstration at a community festival. Significant to folklorists here is that there are two opposing but equally valid ways to use this in the study of a group: you can start with an identified group in order to explore its folklore, or you can identify folklore items and use them to identify the social group.^{[3][note 1]}

Even as the identification of folk groups spreads to all areas of our lives, the group most commonly associated with folk art involves the geographic location of a community. The art and artifacts from different communities and different regions are different; the origin of an individual pieces can frequently be recognized by its shape, patterns, and decorations. The "representative art of such societies is not created by its deviants and misfits… but by normal, intelligent, well-adjusted citizens who care deeply about their history and identity. Folk art comes mostly from the central values of a society rather than its fringe elements…"^[4] All of these objects are part of the collective identity of a community, who claim them as their own.

Defining ‘Art’

During the Middle Ages in Europe, a high proportion of surviving objects, including statues, paintings, drawings, and building arts were directly tied to the messaging and stories of the Roman Catholic church and individual salvation; they were created to the glory of God.

"People did not consider things that were created as means of individual expression; creators simply worked with words or physical materials to construct products that reflected the divine order inherent in all worldly things. … All objects had practical aims; all that was fabricated moved humans toward their quest for salvation. Artisans, by definition, were those who skillfully produced cultural products. The original meaning of the word art, then, was quite clear: it applied to any kind of skill.”^[5][6]

Prior to1500 AD, all material artifacts were created by hand by individual artisans, each of whom was more or less skilled in his or her craft.

With the beginning of the early modern period in the 16th century, a new concept and vocabulary of art and fine art were invented within the western intellectual tradition. During the centuries spanning the late 15th to the late 18th century the emerging middle class in Europe came into their own and sought ways to display their newly minted wealth and power. They began to collect paintings and statues, and to commission new works such as personal portraits. In tandem with these new consumers of art, some few individual artisans were recognized as being exceptional, going on to become the great artists in the period of Renaissance art. In the parlance of this new age, these artisans were said to display individual personal inspiration in their work instead of an exceptional mastery of the age-old practices of their craft. Their works became known as works of art as opposed to the multitude of beautifully crafted objects created during the Middle ages. Art became exclusive, created by gifted individuals for the limited few.^[5]

As part of this new market of fine art for European monied elites, another distinction was introduced between objects which were functional and objects whose only purpose was to create pleasure, i.e. to be aesthetic. The ideas of the Middle Ages were abandoned, in which no distinction was made between the practical and the beautiful in the evaluation of crafted products by either the artisan or the consumer. Replacing them were the ideals of the Renaissance, in which the idea of art as purely aesthetic, lacking any practical purpose, gained credence. This distinction gave rise to the dichotomy of art vs. craft: art was reserved for the elites, everything utilitarian was consigned to the much larger group of functional objects, which were not considered art.^[7]

This same early modern period also marked an increasing awareness in Europe that there were other lands and other peoples whose traditions were not European. Christopher Columbus set sail, as one of the first during the age of discovery and the concomitant globalization of world history. In the words of Gerald Pocius, Europeans discovered the "other" at this time. These "others" lived somewhere else, in cultures that appeared more cohesive than the contemporary cultures of Europe; their lifestyles seemed integrated and meaningful.^[7] Their material culture was also very different than the artifacts common in Europe. These foreign objects were intriguing to the Europeans, however they did not fit in the newly defined genres of "art" and "fine art", which were for the most part confined to painting and sculpture. To get around this, the artifacts of the "other" were labeled as "folk art" or "primitive art", differentiated from the European elite creations, which were "genuine art".^[8] These new labels connoted a qualitatively inferior object, the assumption was that they were of a lesser quality than the newly defined European fine arts.

With these new labels introduced during the early modern age, the European ideas of "art" and "fine art" became entrenched, specifically by exclusion of most of the material culture that surrounds us. The truly inspired work of an "artist", for the most part working in the media of either painting or sculpture, was qualitatively different and more than the exceptional objects produced in Europe by a master craftsman. All utilitarian objects were no longer counted as art; they were of an inferior nature, produced by craftsmen and artisans for the community as a whole. "Folk" or "primitive artifacts" produced in other lands by other cultures, as defined by the European Renaissance, were also qualitatively different and less than the works of art produced by European masters. Henry Glassie, a distinguished folklorist studying technology in cultural context, notes that in Turkish one word, sanat, refers to all objects, not distinguishing between art and craft. The latter distinction, Glassie emphasizes, is not based on medium but on social class.^[9] Simon Bronner takes this further. "… if the folk art object in the aesthetic view is not social and cultural, then what is it? It is a thinly veiled commodity… It is a cultural statement by its owners rather than by its makers… Folk art here is a matter of economics, of education, and of social status."^[10] By 1800, the concept of art for the upper classes only, confined to painting and sculpture, limited to the powerful and wealthy, became the understanding in the European mindset.

The subsequent question becomes how to escape the ethnocentricity of this European concept of art. In his essay on "Art", Gerald Pocius concludes with a definition of art specifically as it applies to material cultural heritage for communities across the globe.

"One of the central defining characteristics, then, of the concept of art must be the criterion of skill… Skills are developed gradually by individuals; they are not acquired automatically, and they are often a matter of degree … Skill manifests itself in a series of operations that produce the cultural behaviors we consider as art. In succinct terms, then, we can define art as the manifestation of a skill that involves the creation of a qualitative experience (often categorized as aesthetic) through the manipulation of whatever forms that are public categories recognized by a particular group. These bring us, then, to the key components of skillful behavior: tradition, group, and emotion.”^{[11][note 2]}

The art of the folk is not about solitary individuals and unique items, it is about skilled artisans living in community, who demonstrate in one or more pieces an exceptional skill, honed over years of practice working in their chosen medium.

Labeling

The term folk art is a category label, created within the western intellectual tradition to describe objects outside of that tradition. The category is not derived from the object itself like the labeling of a clay pot, which is made of clay and is functionally used as a pot. Instead it is imposed from without, by art critics and consumers who are working out of a different cultural context. In discussing "The Idea of Folk Art", Henry Glassie states the problem succinctly: “Distinctions arise when we view the art of one tradition from the perspective of another…. It’s all a matter of where you stand and where you look.”^[12] A set of characteristics to define the category of folk art has been listed above; some of these characteristics are more specific, others less so. It is important to remember that this is a category label that has little or no connection with the object itself; instead the connection is to the outsider's perception of the object. Through the process of categorization, the attempt has been made "to systemize and order in an artificial and simplistic fashion that which is extremely complex, sometimes contradictory, and maybe even chaotic."^[13] Despite all attempts at categorization by art critics, consumers, marketeers and folklorists, the object itself remains an authentic cultural artifact that some individual somewhere created to address a (real or perceived) need.

"Old Bright, The Postman", George Smart, c. 1830s

Craftsmen, Artisans, and Artists

Armed with this definition, it becomes easier to clarify the related terms of craftsman, artisan, and artist. Master craftsmen and artisans, using skills acquired over an extended period of training, can and do create works of art in their chosen medium. This would make these craftsmen and artisans also artists, challenging the current exclusive definition of an artist. Once this conventional aesthetic hierarchy has been eliminated^[14] and the component of exclusivity is removed, there is no more and no less in these three labels; craftsman, artisan, and artist all include a high level of skill in their given media. Professionals in their respective fields, they recognize and embrace the familiar styles with which they are surrounded. While the shared form and motifs indicates a shared culture, the artisan is free to tease out individual elements and manipulate them to form a new permutation within the tradition. "For art to progress, its unity must be dismantled so that certain of its aspects can be freed for exploration, while others shrink from attention."^[15] Innovation allows the individual artisan to represent his own vision, making the creative tension between the traditional object and the craftsman visible in these exceptional objects. George Kubler addresses this issue by re-labeling them all, craftsman, artisan, artist as homo faber, man who creates.^[16]

Colloquial (mis)understanding in America

An earlier, more general understanding of folk art had been developed in America during the Colonial Revival period at the beginning of the 20th century. Between the decades 1880 and 1940 as the country became an urban industrial society, Americans looked back nostalgically to their rural agricultural beginnings. All things antiquated, hand-made, old-fashioned came into vogue, particularly by the upper classes of the East Coast. Removed from their original context of production and utility within the local community, these objects were valued as standalone curiosities from an earlier time in American history. Originally labeled antiques, they became re-labeled as folk art during the first decades of the 20th century by both museum professionals and art marketeers. "Folk was a market term to separate a commodity from the fine arts above and the antiques below."^[17] This shift in terminology opened up folk art to designate anything that was other, outsider, isolate, visionary.^[18]

Despite single voices disputing this inclusive labeling throughout the first half of the last century, it remained entrenched in the vocabulary of the museums and gallery owners, for all items which might more correctly be labeled as Americana. It was at the mid-point of the century, at the same time that folklore as performance began to dominate the discussions, and professionals of folkloristics and cultural history became more selective in what they wanted to label as folk art. When we circumscribe the folk in folk community, then we will automatically circumscribe folk art. There is still variance in the understanding of the folk arts, but for students of cultural history it becomes clear that the folk in folk art are active, committed members within a community, they are not the outliers, isolates, or visionaries on the edges.

Related terminology

Listed below are a wide-ranging assortment of labels for an eclectic group of art works. All of these genres are created outside of the institutional structures of the art world, they are not considered "fine art". There is undoubtedly overlap between these labeled collections, such that an object might be listed under two or more labels.^[19] Many of these groupings and individual objects might also resemble "folk art" in one aspect or another, without however meeting the defining characteristics listed above. As our understanding of art expands beyond the confines of the "fine arts", each of these types needs to be included in the discussion.

Individual studies

• Burrison, John; Glassie, Henry (2010). From Mud to Jug: The Folk Potters and Pottery of Northeast Georgia. Wormsloe Foundation Publication.
• Glassie, Henry (1976). Folk Housing in Middle Virginia: Structural Analysis of Historic Artifacts. Univ of Tennessee Press. ISBN 9780870491733.
• Jones, Michael Owen (1975). The Handmade Object and its Maker. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California.
• Upton, Dell (1997). Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia. Yale University.
• Vlach, John Michael (1992). Charleston Blacksmith: The Work of Philip Simmons. University of South Carolina.

Detail of 17th century calendar stick carved with national coat of arms, a common motif in Norwegian folk art.

Nineteenth century

In 1801, the villages and country sides of North America were littered with skilled craftsmen serving the local populace. The main economy was rural, most people lived and worked on farms to provide shelter and food for themselves and their families. Local artisans were an exception; they had the means to make specialized products that were not easily produced on the individual farmsteads. Using simple, often handmade tools, manual techniques, and local materials, these craftsmen devoted more time to their craft than they did to any patch of land they were cultivating.^[20] The products they made for other households became their main source of income, although the payment was frequently in goods instead of currency.^[26] The workshops of these craftsmen were incorporated into the family homestead. It frequently became a social center in the village, a meeting place to hear and exchange news.^[27]

Folk artisans were trained in their trade in one of several ways, including through family lines where a parent would pass knowledge and tools onto their children to continue working in the skilled craft. This training would occur in a natural setting; children would be pulled into tasks in the workshop as they grew into them. Growing children were considered an economic resource for any family. Another way to learn a specialized skill was in an apprenticeship. A young person would become a trainee in a workshop of a local artisan to learn the trade and have a profession with which to earn a living. This was an option for young people who did not want to farm, or for children in large families where the arable land was not enough to feed a new generation of family members.

Towns in 1801 offered a larger variety of options for residents to acquire goods. Alongside the artisans, there were also shops which sold imported products. These were for the most part handcrafted objects, because industrial manufacturing had only reached a few industries in 1801: weaving and textiles, iron founding, and steam power. Some few artisans whose customers were the economically elite were only located in the towns and cities; these were the goldsmiths, silversmiths and glassblowers.

Twentieth century

In 1901, the Industrial Revolution created mass migration to cities for people to work in factories. People began going to work at a location outside of the home, or stayed at home and did piece work for later assembly by someone else. Rural populations involved in agriculture decreased as the numbers of urban working poor grew.

The continued influx of immigrants into North America included many skilled artisans, who brought the tools and traditions of their handicrafts with them. These master craftsmen looked for opportunities in their new country to use these skills, train apprentices and imprint their new communities with folk objects from their European heritage. In 1932 Allen H. Eaton, published a book "Immigrant Gifts to American Life" which showcased the arts and skills of foreigners at the Buffalo Exhibition.^[28] Eaton pays tribute to the gifts of the new Americans in his forward. “[The immigrant] has brought to his newly chosen country, … treasures in the form of beautiful skills and crafts. By this approach his gifts were gladly received and cherished in the hope that their roots might strike deeply into the new soil to which they were being transplanted."^[29]

For the skilled craftsmen, a powerful competitor had entered the field. By 1901, the mail order catalog of Sears & Roebuck was running a very successful mail order business across the United States. As roads became better and canal systems were expanded, the price of these manufactured products continued to drop. Their catalog of over 500 pages of products reached into all corners of rural America offering manufactured items of identical quality and set price; more and more people bought manufactured goods delivered through the mail instead of one-offs from the local artisan.^[30] Consumers learned to value identical products, manufactured by machines without the individual stamp of the local workshop. The rural artisan making single orders on demand, and the local general store could no longer compete. Many of the handicrafts began to die out with a declining demand, and the workshops that were left "ceased being a maker and became a repairer of manufactured objects."^[27]

It was during the decades around the turn into the 20th century in households that had moved into the cities that the roles of men and women became more sharply delineated. As the men went off to work, the women were left to tend to the home and the children.^[31] The girls stayed closer; it was easier to school them in domestic handicrafts. The boys were expected to follow their fathers into the factory or the mine. The women that did go to work in the factories were valued for their ability to do “delicate” precision work with their smaller hands and attention to detail.^[32]

The only place where the traditional role of the local artisan and workshop of the previous century continued was in closed social religious communities which do not use 20th century technology, such as the Amish and Mennonites. The artisans in these communities continue to make the hand tools needed to maintain their rural lifestyle, and also to find or invent acceptable technical ways to bridge the gap between themselves and the modern world which surrounds them.

Twenty-first century

By 2001 a significant cultural shift had occurred in Western culture with increasing emphasis on individuality and originality, not tradition. For example, Sears & Roebuck had been replaced by shopping malls, then replaced with Amazon. The learning and teaching of many crafts has moved out of the village and into contemporary systems of formalized training. Some European countries continue to incorporate apprenticeship positions in their schooling while others have abandoned this approach for extended schooling in technical and applied arts schools with specialized equipment.

Folk objects are composed of natural materials, crafting them will always be a hands-on event. The students, under direction of master craftsmen, learn the difference in touch and feel of the raw substance. "The conversion from natural object to artifact is accomplished with skill and time. … We can study the process of creation in distinctive stages because the process is deliberate ….the maker commonly controls the steps of production from start to finish."^[33] The goal is to learn what has worked before for the materials, the artisan, and the consumer. In the workshop, students have the opportunity to practice and perfect the skills necessary for their craft. These skills are not learned in isolation, there must be an experienced craftsman involved in the learning process. Along with the manual and design skills taught and learned in the school, the students also learn to run a successful small business.^[34] In the transmission of these skills in technical schools, one could argue that the folk community has been lost, or that the community has re-defined itself for the 21st century.

Further, in 1901 consumers preferred products mass-manufactured in new factories, that all looked and worked the same. By 2001, the unique, hand crafted item had become more desirable due to the pervasiveness of factory-made utensils and items of daily use. Whereas hand-crafted utensils used to be more prevalent, the products of an artisan are now more desirable, in less supply and therefore more expensive. 21st century demands may be summarised by the following- the "hand-made item has, for many purchasers, a prestige or glamour that factory-produced items cannot match."^[35]

A third major shift in the folk crafts in the 21st century is that many traditional crafts have become home hobbies for many, regardless of their community of origin. As the century progresses further into electronics and mind work, the value of handicrafts, i.e. working with your hands, comes to the forefront in discussions on health and well-being. In this activity the artisan moves into a different mental zone, absorbed in something outside of himself, separate and distinct from the rational mindset of most of our waking hours. A quilter in Ohio says "If I want to unwind, I pick up my quilt. It's pleasure, it's leisure. It's something I do for me…"^[36] These skills can be learned in a classroom, but more commonly they are taught and learned on-line, where the pool of engaged students extends world-wide. These new novice students need tools and materials which master craftsmen can now package and supply, opening an important new market for their expertise.

This presents a significant problem for the study of folk art objects. The crafts are age-old and traditional, the tools and methods are also pre-industrial, however the community is new, and is rapidly becoming a global community. The valuation of these new folk hobbyists by professionals of cultural heritage varies. Warren Roberts says they lack tradition. "While crafts pursued as hobbies testify to the vitality of the crafts and to the important social role…the element of tradition is largely lacking when designs and techniques are learned mainly from books, so that we would not be justified in considering hobbies as folk crafts."^[37] In his essay on "Folk Objects", Bronner describes much of this handicraft "as a commentary on contemporary industrial society. The [objects] speak for handwrought, personal, and rural values as against the machine-wrought uniformities of factory production."^[38] In the introduction to "Folk Art and Art Worlds", the cultural values embedded in folk art are highlighted. Many regional exhibitions "typically focus on living traditions and present folk art as a creative expression that signifies ethnic, regional, religious, familial or occupational identity."^[39] Perhaps the problem does not lie in the objects themselves but rather in our definitions of folk, tradition and community.

Materials, forms, and crafts

The list below includes a sampling of different materials, forms, and artisans involved in the production of everyday and folk art objects.^[40]

a folk art wall in Lincoln Park, Chicago

Artisans

Artisans are skilled smart competent craftsmen, men and women who spend a lifetime honing the skills needed to produce objects of note. In the process of creating multiple objects, they develop their own style and an individual taste for what they like and don't like. In talking with them,^[60] it becomes clear that the top priority is always to make an object that works well; if it is not very functional, then it fails the first test of the artist. Only after the assessment of actual utility, will they venture on to evaluate, and value, the aesthetic design of the object. "The modern designer … recognizes the simultaneity of the artefact's aesthetic and practical functioning….often denies his aesthetic, defending his choices and actions solely on the basis of utility."^[61] As part of the (secondary) aesthetic evaluation of the object, an artist might consider innovation of either the form or the decorative elements, however that will subordinate to the object's functionality. Innovation will also mainly occur in dialogue with their customers, with agreement on the balance between tradition and innovation. At the same time, these master craftsmen maintain a level of excellence within their peer group. They are "scornful of shoddy work. Most of the old makers were careful, skilled weavers. … great love for that tradition of excellence…. "^[62] At the same time, there is little financial reward for the long hours involved in crafting an exceptional object.

For community insiders

For consumers within the community of the artisan, their first priority is also that the object works well. They acquire it to use, in their household or on their properties, in the traditional tasks of home and community. Secondarily, the local consumer is looking for something familiar, the recognized ‘good’ style of the community.^[42] They want something that fits in with other tools and utensils that they own; they want something known and familiar, comparable to comfort food in the traditions of foodways. The local consumer is not looking for innovation. In more academic language, Vlach maintains that "folk art resonate[s] with the richness of cultural profundity… they are good because they are familiar."^[63] As local customers, they also want a pricing which is reasonable within the local market, whether that be in currency or in barter.

For visitors and tourists

The outsider to the community, the visitor or tourist, is looking for something unique and engaging as a reminder of their trip; this folk art memento has to be something that the visitor cannot find in his home community. These mementos are for the most part not purchased to be used, but rather to have and display. The object becomes "a cultural statement by its owners rather than by its makers... shaped by consumers more than by producers".^[10] It defines the consumer, who is both well-traveled and well-heeled, as well as the artisan. In highlighting and framing a single item outside of its cultural context, all of the stories and traditions embodied in that object are stripped away.^[64] It becomes just an isolated object, an artifact of the heritage industry.

For curators, collectors and art marketeers

Art marketeers, including gallery owners, museum curators, and collectors of traditional art, have a very different and somewhat controversial agenda in their interest in folk art. For them, the object itself is central, while the history and context become secondary.^[65] These consumers have been trained in the culture of the western European fine arts, and they use these (external) criteria to evaluate traditional folk art objects. This was also common practice for folklorists before World War II, when artifacts were considered to be remnants from earlier societies. This changed in the 1950s as students of cultural heritage began to understand these artifacts in the wider context of their present-day communities. While professional folklorists changed their approach mid-century to encompass this new, expanded understanding of folk artifacts within their communities, professionals in the fine arts retained their focus on the isolated object, as a museum display (curators), as an addition to their private collection, or as a piece to offer for sale (art marketeers).

It also become evident in the second half of the 20th century that the label ‘folk’ was itself a value-add to any old object. "Because of enthusiasm for these….by antique collectors, many handmade objects that had been called antique were now called folk."^[65] Bronner notes that "folk represented an appealing romantic, nativist qualifier used in the marketplace. For those stressing the folk, it represented a sense of community and informal learning…" He goes on to note that this "categorization [in the western market] established folk art as a tradable commodity," with an uptick in advertisements across magazines marketing antiques.^[66] It was during these decades that a split between the professionals in folklore studies and art collectors became evident, with both groups claiming authority and expertise in the now diverging field of "folk art".^{[note 7]} It became evident that "Not insignificantly, the politics of the marketplace have had an impact on the development of terminology…"^[67] The new field of museum folklore now assumes a position of intermediary between the interested parties.

Marketing works better when you have a star performer, and so the art market went out to find them. This is in direct contradiction to the basic values of folk art objects, which have always been recognized as community goods. For one group of Mennonites, a painter is valued within the community for her art. "It serves her community in a traditional, symbolic manner, and it maintains continuity with … tradition."^[68] In contrast, western culture favors individual heroes, those men and women who stand apart from and above the rest of us. And so the National Endowment for the Arts has recognized over 400 national heritage fellows since 1982, heroes in the preservation of traditional crafts. These include folk artists working in quilting, ironwork, woodcarving, pottery, embroidery, basketry, weaving, and other related traditional arts. According to NEA guidelines, they must display "authenticity, excellence, and significance within a particular tradition." This designation comes with grants, a national platform for performance, and a greatly expanded market for their art work.

The designation also comes at a cost. Artisans now focus their attention beyond the home community; that which they did more or less non-reflectively within their communities, they now evaluate in an expanded perspective. Fame becomes a growing factor in their businesses and their lives. The market is interested in their product; it becomes a commodity, bringing with it a sense of entitlement on the part of the consumer.^[10] A "small change here and another there, that they have slowly but surely undermined and finally replaced this rich tradition…. The customer's demand for small and thus inexpensive items has taken over, tilting production toward wall hangings, pillows, and the ubiquitous potholder."^[69] As the reputation of these master craftsmen grows, "individual purchasers, small shop owners and their sales reps, crafts fair and bazaar managers, large department store and mail order catalog buyers, philanthropic organizations... actively engaged in tailoring the products…" to sell.^[70]

In time, the individual artisan becomes aware of the potential for exploitation. It is nice to earn good money, it represents the value society places on their artistry, and a personal recognition of their work.^[71] And yet for many folk artists, the price paid for their hand-crafted product does not even match the minimum wage requirement for the hours they spend on crafting each item.^{[62][note 8]} It is the art marketeers who effect the translation from the folk economy to the mainstream art economy, a process in which a single item is removed from its context, and the artist is portrayed as a single individual instead of one link in a long chain of traditional artisans in the community. "Identifying names of makers builds a system of [modern] consumption… a social agreement of dealers and collectors for marking services."^[72] With name recognition of the traditional artist, their craft and their product is removed from the community to be marketed in the western consumer economy, and becomes a commodity reflective more of the person who buys it than of the master craftsman.

For scholars

It is the scholars who pick up on this concern of exploitation, where the "matters of marketing and exhibiting folk art, and the ethical treatment of folk artists and their communities…".^[73] are studied. For folklorists personally know these men and women, these folk artists, and some of them might even be counted as friends. In interactions with the artisans, the folklorist is looking to clarify the authenticity of the objects as well as their context within the community in evaluating a piece of art. Both Henry Glassie and Michael Jones have advocated for the cultural heritage scholar to go further in actually helping individual folk artists locate appropriate markets and pricing their work for the upscale market.^[74]

This moves into a further intrusion of the researcher in a process, in which the presence of an outsider (read folklore fieldworker) changes the behavior of the individuals involved in the research; this is known as the Hawthorne effect. Jones muses over this in his work with the Cumberland chairmaker. "[N]ot all researchers admit the extent to which they may have been responsible for the condition; frequently the researcher … offered new tools… asked personal questions… objects for a museum… in comparisons presented a new model … provided an audience… questions about objects raised the value of them for the owner. …Many things that occurred might not have been had I not been present…"^[75] As our communities change and develop, these traditional crafts need to be documented and supported, but in doing so, scholars need to be cautious not to destroy or distort the very thing which they value.