Georgia Folklore Society

Biographical History

The field collector, Art Rosenbaum, is a professor of art at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. He was born in 1938 and received his degrees from Columbia University (A.B. 1960, MFA 1961). He also studied at the Institut d'Art et d'Archéologie in Paris on a Fulbright grant in 1964-65, and has exhibited his drawings and paintings extensively. He has recorded folk musicians throughout the United States, particularly in Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, and New York. Some of his visual art portrays the performers and musical performances represented in his musical collections.

Rosenbaum has published Shout Because You're Free: The African American Ring Shout Tradition in Coastal Georgia (F 292 .M15 R67 1998; Margo Newmark Rosenbaum, photographs; Johann S. Buis, music transcriptions and historical essay). This book draws in part from the field recordings of the Georgia Folklore Collection, and also includes subsequent field research. Four recordings that include music from these field recordings are: Folk Vision and Voices: Traditional Music and Song in Northern Georgia (1983, Folkways FE 34161-34162), Down Yonder: Old-Time String Band Music from Georgia (1982, Folkways FS 31089), McIntosh County Shouters: Slave Shout Songs from the Coast of Georgia (1984, Folkways FE 4344), and Georgia Folk: A Sampler of Traditional Sounds (1990, Global Village SC 03).

From the guide to the Art Rosenbaum Georgia Folklore Collection, 1955-1983, 1976-1983, (Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center Library of Congress http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home)