Research
Each year the Florida Folklife Program conducts fieldwork on an aspect of Florida's traditional culture to increase knowledge about Florida artists and folk arts. Topic selection is based on assessments of previous research, dominant cultural topics, and needs for the future. The State Folklorist then selects folk artists and tradition bearers documented over the course of the survey to be featured in the Folklife Area of the Florida Folk Festival. The nation's oldest state-sponsored folk festival, the Florida Folk Festival is held each Memorial Day Weekend at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida. The theme for the Folklife Program's annual survey in 2007 and 2008 was Florida Cattle Ranching. This two-year fieldwork project resulted in Florida Cattle Ranching: Five Centuries of Tradition, a 2,400-square-foot exhibit that traveled to museums throughout the state as well as to the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada.
Summary of Folklife Research
| Year | Theme |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Elements: Air |
| 2023 | Elements: Earth |
| 2022 | Elements: Fire |
| 2020 | Elements: Water |
| 2019 | Culture on the Move |
| 2018 | Culture on the Move |
| 2017 | Southwest Florida |
| 2016 | Miami-Dade County |
| 2015 | St. Johns County |
| 2014 | Upper St. Johns River Basin Region |
| 2013 | Lower St. Johns River Basin Region |
| 2012 | Panhandle's Inland Counties |
| 2011 | Panhandle's Coastline Counties |
| 2010 | Alachua County |
| 2009 | Nature Coast |
| 2008 | Ranching |
| 2007 | Ranching |
| 2006 | Agriculture |
| 2005 | New Communities of Central Florida |
| 2004 | Dance |
| 2003 | Rites of Passage |
| 2002 | Eastern Mediterranean |
| 2001 | 2001: The Space Coast |
| 2000 | Swampways: Traditional Culture of Our Wetlands |
| 1999 | Traditional Sports & Games |
| 1998 | Asian and Pacific Island Arts |
| 1997 | South of the South |
| 1996 | Storytelling; Mexican Music Survey |
| 1995 | Sesquicentennial/Florida's Oldest Communities |
| 1994 | Central Florida |
| 1993 | Transportation |
| 1992 | Cultural Crossroads: 40th Anniversary Retrospective |
| 1991 | Rediscoveries: African American and Anglo-Celtic American |
| 1990 | Celebrations: Caribbean Carnival, Greek Epiphany & Jewish Purim |
| 1989 | Timber Industries |
| 1988 | Southwest Florida Region |
| 1987 | Maritime Industries |
| 1986 | Miami-Dade Region |
| 1985 | St. Johns River Basin Region |
| 1984 | Ranching |
| 1983 | North Florida Region and Folklife of St. Augustine Minorcans |
| 1982 | Seminole Folklife and Traditions of Traveling Entertainers |
| 1981 | Big Bend Region and Panhandle Region |
| 1980 | Tampa Bay Region |
| 1979 | Traditional Crafts of Florida |
