The English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) is to add to several important collections to its online archive and partner three national museums in a new initiative to preserve and promote the folk arts.
The Full English Extra will see the collections of Mary Neal, suffragette, radical arts practitioner and founder of the Esperance Girls Club, and folk dance educator Daisy Caroline Daking added to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library online archive, alongside its collection of 19th century broadside ballads and songsters.
EFDSS will work with three national museums – the Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading, the National Coal Mining Museum for England near Wakefield in Yorkshire and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London – combining folk arts and museum education to provide powerful new learning experiences for schools.
The Full English Extra builds on the success of EFDSS’ flagship project The Full English, which created the world’s largest digital archive of folk songs, dances, tunes and customs, and a nationwide learning programme that reached more than 16,000 people.
Katy Spicer, Chief Executive of EFDSS, said:
“The Full English Extra will allow us to expose these important dance and broadside collections to a wider audience. The launch of The Full English archive was a landmark in digital archives and we know from its continuing popularity that people are keen to learn more about folk culture.
“We are very pleased to be working with the museums to develop individual programmes that will allow us to inspire a new generation about traditional folk music and dance.”
The Full English Extra, which is supported by National Lottery players through the Heritage Lottery Fund, will run from September 2015 to March 2016.
