Folk Art and World Art--College of St. Catherine Libraries

Welcome to the Folk Art and World Art Subject Guide. Here you will find some tips to get you started on your research in the area of Folk and Outsider Art as well as World Art. This page will give you suggestions on how to find information on the art of many different cultures and groups not only in Minnesota but around the world as well.

The World Wide Web sources on this page have been chosen for their content as well their ability to allow you to explore further on your chosen topic. This page is by no means comprehensive. There is a lot of information out there on the various issues surrounding this topic. Please ask a Reference Librarian for assistance with any of the resources given here or if you would like some personal help in exploring further.

Visit the CSC-M Voice and Vision Student Gallery or Folk Art instructor Carolyn Erler's webpage.

Books

Search CLICnet, our electronic card catalog, for books on your culture or medium of choice. You may request books from other libraries in our consortium as well as find materials available right here at St.Kate's.

A tip : Art subject headings follow the format of "art, ethnic group". So, try looking up subjects like "art, african" or subject keywords like "art and bangladesh". For a more specific search, you might try something like "sculpture, african."

See the Guide to CLICnet for more information.

Browsing shelf areas that are relevant to your topic can be a useful strategy. Books in the Reference and circulating collections are shelved in general subject categories according to the Library of Congress classification system. Below is a brief listing of some of the shelf locations

N Visual arts (general)

NA Architecture

NB Sculpture

NC Drawing. Design. Illustration.

ND Painting

NE Print media

NK Decorative arts. Applied arts. Folk Art. Decoration and ornament. Including antiques in general.

NX Arts in general, including works dealing with two or more of the fine arts media.

TR Photography

TT Crafts

About off-campus access

Articles

Academic Search Premier: The world's largest academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for more than 4,600 scholarly publications, including full text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study, including the arts.
MasterFILE Premier: Designed specifically for public libraries, this multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 2,050 general periodicals with full text dating as far back as 1975. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Premier also includes more than 350 full text reference books (for example, the World Almanac, Magill Book Reviews, and American Heritage Dictionary), 84,074 biographies, 86,132 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags.

Search Art Full Text for citations to articles about a whole host of art-related subjects.

World Wide Web sources

Encyclopedic Art Sites | Local Resources | Folk Art and Outsider Art | Crafts | World Art

Encyclopedic Art Sites

Artcyclopedia.com: Allows you to browse by movement, medium, subject, nationality. Each artist has links to one or more current online exhibitions. Also a good set of links to many other art resources on the web.
ArtDaily: This online magazine is updated daily, allowing you to find out what happened today in the world of art. A lot about "the current scene." Plus links to other art magazines on the web. Don't miss the comprehensive artists list.
Art History Resources on the Web: An award-winning website. Covers art history from the Prehistoric to the Modern. A very nice breakdown of history and styles and movements by century. Also a section on Non-European Art, Research Resources and Museums and Galleries.
ArtSeek: The focus here is "Art on the Internet." A good listing of virtual art galleries, art museums online and art publications online.

Local Resources

Artsnet Minnesota: A webpage created by four local museums, the Walker Institute, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Weisman Art Museum from the University of Minnesota. This site explores such concepts as : "What is Art" "Identity" "Environment" "Designing spaces and places" and "Inner Worlds".

Needlework Guild of Minnesota: A non-profit organization. Check out their needlework tips.

Minnesota Crafts Council : A Regional Arts Organization: Their mission is "to foster, encourage and promote the creation, use and enjoyment of crafts." See some award-winning local crafts.

Folk Art and Outsider Art

Read their bulletin, the Folk Art Messenger. Check out articles featuring individual folk artists and also links to more folk art sites.
Intuit : the center for intuitive and outsider art: Good for Outsider Art Environments.
Museum of American Folk Art, New York New York: See some of the "finer" pieces of American Folk Art.
Museum of International Folk Art: In Santa Fe New Mexico. Several online exhibits as well as information about their permanent collections : World Folk Objects, Spanish Colonial Art, International Textiles and Costumes, and Contemporary Southwestern Hispanic Art.
Raw Vision: This online version of the "International Journal of Intuitive and Visionary Art" provides access to many articles from back issues as well as a very good set of links to other folk and outsider art pages. Don't miss their statement on the history and ideology of "outsider art."

Crafts

Crafts Fair Online! The hotlinks page: For all Arts and Crafts on the Web. Includes : ideas and instruction, crafts message boards and crafts publications.

Yahoo's Crafts Directory: From Basketry to Origami to Woodworking.

World Art

WWW Virtual Library : Regional Studies: A thorough listing of cultures from around the world. Pages listed here will lead you to information on art as well as other cultural phenomena.
World Art Treasures: 100,000 slides available online from the Jacques-Edouard Berger Foundation. Go through 16 itineraries which include the art of Japan, Egypt, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma. Robust essays accompany the images.

Yahoo's Art Links : Cultures and Groups: Something for almost everyone. Cultures from Afghan to Yoruba. Also includes : disabilities, lesbians and gays, women, religion, seniors and children.

Sub-Saharan African Art: From the Michael C.Carlos Museum of Emory University, a nice selection as well as detailed information on African Art objects.
African Art : Aesthetics and Meaning: An electronic exhibition catalog from the Bayly Art Museum at the University of Virginia. Exhibition images are accompanied by essays and a bibliography.
Africa : Arts and Architecture: Nicely annotated set of links on this subject from the University of Pennsylvania's African Studies website.

Afro-American Arts : Visual Arts and Poetry: From the African-American Web connection.

Asiannet: Look for links to art pages in this database which covers a wide range of cultural and commercial sites. Countries covered include : Hong Kong, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Korea, and Taiwan. Warning : you may have to ask for the English version of a page.
Many Faces - Many Paths : Art of Asia, Glenbow Museum: An online exhibition of sacred objects from the Buddhist and Hindu Cultures of Asia.

NativeTech: This is an amazing website "dedicated to disconnecting the term 'primitive' from perceptions of Native American Technology and Art". It offers a great selection of topics on Native American Culture, notable crafts e.g. beadwork, birds and feathers, clay and pottery to name a few. Also information on museums, music and performance, stories, history, .... This site also contains a well-selected set of links to many other websites on specific tribes and aspects of Native American culture. And, there is a very good page here entitled "Techniques for evaluating American Indian Websites.

Azteca Web Page: "The Azteca Web Page contains information especially accumulated for Mexicans, Chicanos and/or Mexican Americans." Pages here are in Spanish, English, or both. Check out the link to "Art and Dance" as well as other links to cultural information pertaining to this group.
Latin American Art Museum: This site has both a Spanish and an English version. It is the "first visual art institution in Florida to foster and promote both established and emerging contemporary artists of diverse Latin American, Caribbean and Spanish heritage." A contemporary art museum; don't expect to find Pre-Columbian or historical art here.
Museum of Latin American Art: "MOLAA encourages the understanding of the work of living artists in Mexico, Central and South America." Take a virtual tour. Investigate further with a good set of links to related websites.

computer

Searching the World Wide Web

Search the Internet Worldwide A St.Kate's library guide, this page lists search engines and subject guides and also gives you some description and pointers on how to search them.

Evaluating Information Found on the World Wide Web : a checklist, by Amy Shaw, College of St. Catherine Library.

See St.Kate's Style Manuals guide to learn how to cite web pages in your research.