City Lore

Diverse perspectives from the fields of folklore, history, anthropology, and ethnomusicology are all integrated into City Lore programs that promote New York City's cultural heritage. City Lore projects include The People's Poetry Gathering, a poetry festival in downtown Manhattan; Place Matters, a citywide initiative to identify and protect historic sites; CARTS (Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students); and online exhibitions on such topics as Caribbean food in New York, multiethnic frozen desserts, the history of the Puerto Rican flag, and the art of bobbin lace. Additionally, City Lore produces cable television and radio series, films and videos, pamphlets, educational curricula, discussion guides, and books on cultural and historical topics.

In-school programs: Through artist residencies, performances, workshops, and instructional materials, City Lore educators help teachers work community resources into curriculum. Students explore their surroundings outside of school and then create theater, dance, music, or visual artwork about their communities. Programs are available on an individual classroom or school-wide basis and can be customized to fit teachers' specific needs.

Professional development: City Lore offers in-school professional development workshops, technology seminars, artist residencies, and instructional materials for individual schools and school districts. The Local Learning initiative provides summer institutes that support the creation of integrated teaching tracks and the infusion of folk and community resources in the classroom.

Student/teacher events: City Lore mounts an annual awards ceremony, People's Hall of Fame, honoring grassroots contributions to New York's cultural life. A permanent, multimedia exhibit featuring Hall of Fame winners is on view at the Museum of the City of New York.

Additional resources: The City Lore office houses a Teacher's Resource Center of books, photographs, and videos on folklore, history, culture, and the arts. The CARTS Education Network website (www.carts.org) coordinates a folk arts-in-education community linking teachers, folk arts educators and folk artists through virtual and print communications. The CARTS catalog, available online and via mail order, sells more than 150 multimedia resources in folklore, history, culture, and the arts for integration across the curriculum.

General information: Address: 72 East First Street, New York, NY 10003; Phone: (212) 529-1955; Web: www.citylore.org.

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