GLOW Traditions
GLOW Traditions supports our area’s living cultural heritage through documentation and public programming of traditional arts. It operates collaboratively among the Arts Council for Wyoming County, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, and the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council.
Traditional or folk arts are the ways a group maintains and passes on its shared way of life. They are usually learned informally, yet remain important expressions of a community’s sense of beauty, identity, and values. They range from verbal “lore” like local ghost stories, children’s rhymes or family sayings, to material arts like woodcarving, quilting, or fly tying, to performance arts like fiddling, break dancing, or square dance calling. Your family, your church, your neighborhood – these are all groups that practice and maintain creative traditions that give meaning to everyday life.
If you’ve never been to a square dance, come early at 6:30 p.m. to learn the basic steps!
No special clothing or prior knowledge is required, and all ages are welcome at this family-friendly, fun evening. Refreshments will be available.
Info: email glowtraditions@goart.org
GLOW Traditions presents performances, workshops, demonstrations, exhibits and educational opportunities year-round. Here is a sampling of some of our programs:
Annual Round and Square Dance in Livingston County, supporting a long tradition of live music and eastern-style square dancing
Music and dance concerts featuring Irish, Italian, Polish, German, Hispanic and Eastern European traditions
Festive Foodways: presentations of celebratory culinary traditions of different cultures
Hispanic holiday and life traditions, such as Three Kings Day celebrations and Qinceanera arts
Occupational folklife and folklore of the Retsof Salt Mine and former mining community of Little Italy
Accordion Fest, featuring musicians and instruments from diverse ethnic and regional traditions
Workshops and apprenticeships in traditional music
Our programs receive major support from the Folk Arts Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, as well as regional community, business, and government support, and funding from national foundations such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the GRAMMY Foundation. This regional program has been led since 1997 by founding Director, Karen Canning.
