The Presence of Folk Art

In this new printing of one of the foundational works of folklore scholarship, renowned scholar and folklorist Henry Glassie revisits his 1989 study of 300 objects selected from the Girard Collection at Santa Fe's Museum of International Art. The Spirit of Folk Art was wide-ranging, multidisciplinary, and a statement of Glassie's about the nature of folk art itself.

That book was about how folk art is made. In The Presence of Folk Art, Glassie reexamines his original essay to explore how folk art is thought of and shaped in the minds of scholars and collectors alike. With an extended new introduction, updated bibliography, and all-new color photographs, Glassie dives into our world and the world of the folk artist so that we can refine what we know and learn what we do not.

Thus, the search for the spirit of folk art begins.