WORKSHOPS & TRAININGS
Vermont Folklife’s work is guided by this central question: How can we understand experience from the point of view of the person or group to whom that experience belongs?
Our workshops and trainings invite anyone to participate in this process. Interviewing, cultural documentation, and media making are a few tools and approaches to get you started.
We also offer custom workshops to meet the needs of your community or organization. Our staff, trained in ethnography and documentary techniques, are also available to consult on project design.
Introductory Workshops
We offer these two workshops on a recurring basis throughout the year. Choose your focus:
Documenting Everyday Life
This workshop presents the foundations of the “ethnographic toolkit, ” Vermont Folklife’s particular skill set and approach.
Deep listening and description help us capture the scope of everyday life and are an important part of how ethnography builds context. These tools can be used by anyone looking to engage with a community or group of people to reach a deeper understanding about how we live and live together.
This workshop will leave participants with an awareness of the ethics of representation in all public work on Vermont community life and cultures. Space and time is provided to work individually and as a cohort to apply the ethnographic toolkit within your own community projects, research, media-making endeavors, classroom plans, or areas of interest.
Community Driven Media Making
This course is for anyone interested in using digital media and community interviewing as tools for social engagement and change.
What impact does creating and sharing a documentary audio story, oral history, or other multimedia have on the people or communities represented within that medium? With a specific focus on audio-production, participants are trained in how to conduct and record a long-form, open-ended interview and then work from that interview recording to edit and complete a polished 1-5 minute digital audio story. Access to audio editing software is provided as part of the course.
Along the way we’ll discuss informed consent, using release forms, ethics of representation, archiving and media storage, and creative strategies for community engagement through media making. The class culminates in a “listening party” where final stories are shared.
See below for upcoming workshop dates
Custom Workshops & Trainings
We offer custom workshops to meet the needs of your community or organization. Our staff, trained in ethnography and documentary techniques are also available to consult on project design.
We regularly work with…
High school, college, or graduate classes
Community groups
Nonprofits or businesses
To develop skills for…
Community research projects
Oral history and interviewing
Community-driven media production
ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ANYONE TO CONTRIBUTE TO LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND EFFECT SOCIAL CHANGE.
Reach out to mwesley@vtfolklife.org to discuss custom workshops or trainings.
Education Staff
Mary Wesley, Director of Education and Media
Mary Wesley is a digital storyteller and explorer of Vermont culture. She has a background in Anthropology and completed post-graduate training at the SALT Institute for Documentary Studies in audio production and multimedia storytelling. Mary is the founding producer of the Folklife Center's VT Untapped podcast.
What people say about our work:
“This program with its passionate leaders and participants was a profound joining of forces culminating in countless awareness-expanding moments of great richness. Thank you for being so kind, helpful, and sensitive to the awesome potential energies of our group.”
“The Institute was literally one of the best courses I have ever taken.”
“The institute demonstrated how powerful ethnography can be in connecting people to each other and their communities. The principle of letting the truth come out authentically and conducting research without a set agenda is powerful. Ethnography is about connecting with everyday people and discovering the universal themes, issues, and stories that all of us hold. I felt genuinely inspired, personally and professionally.”
“This course is full of insight on the world through ethnography and all of the information learned is valuable. ”