News of Norway, issue 6, 1997
The exhibit’s curator, Marion Nelson, professor emeritus of Art History at the University of Minneapolis, initiated the video production and contacted a local production company, Associated Inc. "Norwegian Folk Art, The Migration of Tradition" offers photography of carvings, paintings, tapestries and costumes that represent the folk arts of Norway and their counterparts produced more recently in Norwegian-American communities.
According to Nelson, the exhibit "has two aims: first, to give a comprehensive presentation of Norwegian folk art from its beginning in the late Middle Ages, through its development under the influence of mainstream European art, to its decline with the coming of the Industrial Revolution; and, second, to follow the art across the Atlantic with the 19th and 20th century emigrants who settled in the United States."
Over 200 objects are presented through a blend of traditional Norwegian music and authoritative narration scripted by Nelson.
The Vesterheim museum in Decorah, Iowa, has been central in putting the exhibit together and cooperation from the Museum of American Folk Art in New York, Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo, North Dakota Heritage in Bismarck and the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul helped make both the touring exhibit and the video production possible.
VHS copies of "Norwegian Folk Art, The Migration of a Tradition" are available for $24.95 in the NTSC (U.S.) format, and $39.95 in the PAL (European) format.
To order, call Norwegian Heritage Museum at (206) 789-5707 or Associated Inc. at 1-888-719-4099.