COVID-19 Resources
This is a compilation of resources relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Signed-in members are encouraged to share resources, or you can email [email protected] to suggest an item for the list.
Additionally, AFS has created a spreadsheet to track the COVID-19-related projects and research by folklorists, cultural organizations, and traditional artists. This is an open access document and all are welcome to add to it:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SIfp468KXGXwTS4jJGiujfNYJqaGFZtt6N1HrEIbePU/edit#gid=0
Click on a link below to jump directly to a particular type of resource:
- Funding and Financial Aid Options
- Working During the Pandemic
- Collecting the Creative Responses of the Coronavirus Outbreak
- Virtual Spaces for Traditional Arts
- Content from Folklorists about COVID-19 and Pandemics
- Surveys Related to COVID-19 Impact on Artists and Arts Organizations
- Other Collections of Resources
- Other Related News
- Official COVID-19 Information
Funding and Financial Aid Options
- CERF+ COVID-19 Relief Fund: This fund provides financial assistance to professional artists working in craft disciplines who are facing dire circumstances from the COVID-19 crisis:
https://cerfplus.org/cerf-covid-19-relief-grant/?org=808&lvl=100&ite=2242&lea=2184814&ctr=0&par=1&trk= - Borealis Philanthropy: This fund provides financial resources to trans-led organizations and transgender, gender nonconforming, and non-binary communities who are organizing in response to the COVID-19 crisis:
https://borealisphilanthropy.org/grantmaking/fund-for-trans-generations/covid-19-collective-fund-for-trans-communities/ - The NDN Collective’s COVID-19 Response Project: This project is designed to provide immediate relief to some of the most underserved communities in the country, including distributing resources to frontline organizations, Tribes and individuals, and artists and entrepreneurs who have suffered the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic:
https://ndncollective.org/covid-19/ - Center for Craft’s Craft Future Fund: A new grant supporting creative responses to COVID-19 for craft communities:
https://www.centerforcraft.org/news/center-for-craft-introduces-craft-futures-fund - SAA Foundation’s Archival Workers Emergency Fund: A fund to provide financial assistance for archival workers experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crises:
https://awefund.wordpress.com/ - The Lewis Prize for Music’s COVID-19 Community Response Fund: The Lewis Prize for Music is establishing a one million dollars COVID-19 Community Response Fund which will distribute over 20 grants of $25,000–$50,000 to responsive and adaptive Creative Youth Development (CYD) music programs:
https://app.getacceptd.com/lewisprize - National Endowment for the Humanities’ CARES Act: Cultural Organization: NEH announced new grant guidelines designed to rapidly distribute CARES Act funding to cultural nonprofits affected by the coronavirus pandemic. This new funding opportunity will provide grants of up to $300,000 to sustain humanities organizations and preserve jobs in the cultural sector:
https://www.neh.gov/program/neh-cares-cultural-organizations - CATCH’s Folk Arts COVID-19 Relief Fund: A consortium of organizations led by the Center for Art, Tradition, and Cultural Heritage (CATCH) and including City Lore, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD), Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC), Mind Builders Creative Arts Center, Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders, and the Folk Arts Program of the Brooklyn Arts Council have established The Folk Arts Relief Fund for New York City; donate here:
https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/folk-arts-relief-fund - Art is Alive: A solidarity effort aimed at providing resources, spreading awareness, and building connectedness within the artistic and creative freelance communities impacted by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic:
https://www.artliveson.com/about - Music COVID Relief: A resource brought to you from the partners of the U.S. Music Community to help music professionals access information and applications to receive benefits made available by the CARES Act:
https://musiccovidrelief.com/ - Artplace’s America’s National Endowment for the Arts CARES Act Funding Webinar: Video recording of webinar that present information about the funding that the NEA received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act:
https://www.artplaceamerica.org/blog/national-endowment-arts-cares-act-funding-webinar - Artist Relief’s Grants: Artist Relief will distribute $5,000 in grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to the COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.artistrelief.org/ - National Endowment for the Arts Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act: The National Endowment for the Arts will award funds to nonprofit arts organizations to alleviate financial distress that was a result of forced closure of their operations due to the outbreak of COVID-19. This aid is for the organization and its employees
https://www.arts.gov/grants-organizations/CARES/grant-program-description - Wbur’s List of Grants and Resources for Artists and Nonprofits:
https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/03/24/grants-funds-resources-artists-nonprofits-covid-19-coronavirus - The American Folklore Society’s Consultancy and Professional Development Program:
https://www.afsnet.org/page/ConsProfDev - Oral History Association’s Emerging Crises Oral History Research Fund: Guidelines to apply for grants up to $4,000 to conduct oral history research during this worldwide crises
https://www.oralhistory.org/award/emerging-crisis-research-fund/ - Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund: A petition to request funds to be distributed through the NEA to help offset the losses of the nonprofit arts industry and to expand the eligibility through additional federal programs to ensure artists, entrepreneurs, and small business in the creative economy can utilize business interruption relief
https://www.artsactionfund.org/action-center
Working During the Pandemic
Research
- Journal of American Folklore’s Open Access to Content: AFS is joining publishers across the country in making the Journal of American Folklore available for free through ProjectMuse and JSTOR through June 30, 2020:
https://www.afsnet.org/news/news.asp?id=506716 - Project MUSE’s Free Access to Scholarly Content: In response to the challenges created by the global public health crisis of COVID-19, Project MUSE is making scholarly content temporarily available for free on its platform
https://about.muse.jhu.edu/resources/freeresourcescovid19/
Teaching
- Folk Arts in Education: A Resource Handbook II: As a free online resource for educators, the handbook examines the state of folklife and folk arts in education projects around the U.S. with sample curricula from over 50 exemplary programs for youth in educational settings in K–12 schools, youth-serving organizations arts and humanities councils, museums, and cultural heritage and folk arts nonprofit organizations:
http://www.folkartsineducation.org/index.php - Teaching Tolerance’s A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Through Coronavirus: A post offering suggestions on trauma-informed practices to support students during the COVID-19 pandemic:
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/a-trauma-informed-approach-to-teaching-through-coronavirus - H-Net’s Resources for Scholars: Access to lists to share information of resources relating to teaching online and remote conference presentations
https://networks.h-net.org/node/513/discussions/6016984/two-new-resources-scholars-affected-coronavirus - Modern Language Association’s Learning Space Demonstration: An online courses for instructions on how to use the MLA’s Learning Space, a virtual learning platform in which instructors can share information with their students
https://learningspace.hcommons.org/lesson/introduction-to-learning-space-from-the-mla/
Remote Fieldwork/Interviewing
- “On Remote Fieldwork and Shifting Gears”: An article by Michelle Stefano in Folklife Today:
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2020/05/on-remote-fieldwork-and-shifting-gears/ - Oral History Society’s Advice on Remote Oral History Interviewing Guide:
https://www.ohs.org.uk/advice/covid-19/ - Oral History Association’s Oral History at a Distance: Conducting Remote Interviews Webinar: A full recording of a webinar and Q&A session, co-sponsored by Baylor University’s Institute for Oral History and the Oral History Association, that address the dynamics of conducting remote oral history interviews
https://www.oralhistory.org/2020/03/26/webinar-oral-history-at-a-distance-conducting-remote-interviews/ - Zencastr: Web-based Recording Platform for Remote Interviews: During the outbreak, Zencastr is lifting the limit on the amount of guests and recording time
https://zencastr.com/ - AFS Member Thomas Richardson’s List of Tools, Methods, Ideas, and Training Material for Conducting Remote Fieldwork:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1511202559129064/permalink/2489230831326227/
Museums, Arts, and Other Organizations
- Common Field’s Building Language Justice for Arts and Arts Organization Workshop: This two-hour workshop on Saturday, April 25, 2020, starting at 5:00 PM CDT, is designed for organizers, non-profit artists, and anyone else interested in strengthening their work with multilingual communities:
https://www.commonfield.org/convenings/3248/program/4035/building-language-justice-for-artists-and-arts-organizations - American Alliance of Museums’ COVID-19 Resources and Information for the Museum Field: American Alliance of Museums compiled a guide to help museums prepare internally and externally for outbreaks in their communities and navigate the broader impact of COVID-19
https://www.aam-us.org/programs/about-museums/covid-19-resources-information-for-the-museum-field/ - Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Webinar on Mitigating COVID-19 When Managing Paper-Based, Circulating, and Other Types of Collections: A webinar providing guidance from the CDC for libraries, archives, and museums to manage collections during coronavirus pandemic
https://www.imls.gov/webinars/mitigating-covid-19-when-managing-paper-based-circulating-and-other-types-collections
Collecting the Creative Responses of the Coronavirus Outbreak
- Center for Food and Culture’s Finding Comfort Through Connections Through Food Project: The Center for Food and Culture has received funding from the Association for the Study of Food and Society to conduct a virtual oral history on how people are using foodways to find comfort during the pandemic. The project will result in an archive of interviews, an on-going and interactive online exhibit, and a virtual symposium:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2846794575355800&id=173230769378874&__tn__=K-R - International Society for Contemporary Legend Research’s Call for Papers for a Special Issue on COVID-19 for Contemporary Legends: The editors of Contemporary Legend are proposing a special issue of the journal to take stock of the emergent vernacular responses to COVID-19, as a snapshot not only of the folkloric forms themselves but of the field’s thoughts about them:
https://www.afsnet.org/news/505109/CFP-A-Special-Issue-of-Contemporary-Legend-on-COVID-19.htm - University of Aberdeen’s Lockdown Lore Collection Project: The Elphinstone Institute Archives invites people of Scotland to submit creative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic:
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/public-engagement/LockdownLore.php - KFP’s “Connecting Across the Commonwealth in the Time of the Coronavirus” Project: The Kentucky Folklore Program, in partnership with Western Kentucky Folk Studies Program and the Kentucky Oral History Commission, is launching this project to engage with and document the experiences of Kentuckians during the COVID-19 pandemic using virtual story-circles:
https://www.wku.edu/fsa/news/index.php?view=article&articleid=8713 - “Wish You Were Here: A Project on Placemaking and Pandemic”: This project invites participants to illustrate a postcard template and share how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our relationship to time and space:
https://www.pandemicpostcardproject.com/ - University of Arkansas Libraries’ Call for Pandemic Experiences for Archives: The U of A Libraries’ Special Collections division and the Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts are seeking to preserve the personal coronavirus pandemic experiences of university students, faculty and staff, and Arkansans from across the state:
https://www.kuaf.com/post/u-libraries-asks-arkansans-submit-pandemic-experiences-archiving#stream/0 - UNESCO’s Call for Submissions about Experiences Related to Intangible Cultural Heritage during the Pandemic: UNESCO is collecting stories of how the living cultural heritage of one’s community has been affected by the crisis and how individuals and their communities are drawing on living heritage to cope with the present situation
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Uq5PHbM5-kuwswIpVrERlPFwScS5u59LsaYAqLW4SGRUNzFHQjBNMUQ0RDNKSE5DSTc4TFIxOUJBQy4u - City Lore’s Call for Submissions for Touching Hearts, Not Hands Collection of COVID-19 Folklore: A call for submissions of the creative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of songs, stories, poems, or videos that convey the experience of living during this challenging time
https://www.afsnet.org/news/498738/City-Lore-Encourages-Submissions-of-COVID-19-Folklore-for-Touching-Hearts-Not-Hands-Initiative.htm - Foxfire’s COVID-19 Oral History Project: A campaign to collect oral histories via crowdsourcing
https://www.foxfire.org/covid-19-oral-history-project-2/ - Journal of Academic Advising‘s Special Call for Submissions for “Autoethnography and Advising in the Time of Corona”:
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jaa/announcement/view/154
Virtual Spaces for Traditional Arts
- Smithsonian Folklife Festival Virtual Events: Due to the postponement of the 2020 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, some events had been moved to a virtual space; see all events:
https://www.facebook.com/smithsonianfolklife/ - American Folklife Center’s Archives Challenge: A challenge to browse the Library of Congress’ archives, create a song, a piece of artwork, or a poem, and share your creation with the American Folklife Center:
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2020/05/spending-a-lot-of-time-at-home-take-the-archive-challenge/ - Folk Arts at Arts Mid-Hudson’s Virtual Folk Arts Weeks: Each week will have a different prompt and challenge in which participants can share stories or images relating to the prompt:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10215465359896797&set=gm.828526107669789&type=3&theater&ifg=1 - Nikon School’s Free Photography Classes: During the month of April, Nikon School has ten videos that can be streamed for free:
https://www.nikonevents.com/us/live/nikon-school-online/ - Folkstreams: Browse and stream documentary films on American traditional cultures
http://www.folkstreams.net/index.php - FolkCloud: Browse folksongs and music from around the world
https://folkcloud.com/ - The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic’s Rapunzel’s Toolkit, or How to Nurture Magic and Sanity in Your Tower: A list of fun activities that one can engage in or participate in while following one’s duty of quarantining and social distancing
https://carterhaughschool.com/rapunzels-toolkit-or-how-to-nurture-magic-and-sanity-in-your-tower/ - National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library’s “Folklife 101” Video Series: The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library (NCSML) has released a new video series called “Folklife 101,” which is a crash course on folk and traditional arts and will feature introductory lessons on folklife, the different forms of folk culture, and why folklife matters to everyone
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157307492273940&id=97687943939 - Vermont Folklife Center’s Virtual Story Circles: Includes more information on virtual story circles and a reservation form to participate in Virtual Story Circles (if you are from or in Vermont), and as well as a guide on how to host your own virtual story circles
https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/virtual-story-circles - Virginia Folklife Program’s TRAIN: Teachers of Remote Arts Instruction Network: Online resources for teaching traditional arts online developed by the Virginia Folklife Program
virginiafolklife.org/train - Learning Locally: Creative Responses Across the Nation in a Time of COVID-19: Local Learning is aggregating resources (folk arts organizations and materials) that “make local learning visible and preserving a wide-ranging array of folk artistry,” presented in a regional map
https://www.locallearningnetwork.org/education-resources/learning-locally/regional-responses-to-learning-locally/ - Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Shelter Together: A live video series that will feature performances by traditional artists from California every Wednesday and Friday at noon
https://www.afsnet.org/news/497000/Shelter-Together-Streams-Live-Traditional-Artists-during-Quarantine.htm - Vermont Folklife Center’s Listening in Place Project: Listening in Place is a new initiative that will result in the creation of a crowd-sourced sound archive to document the daily experiences during the pandemic and a series of online Virtual Story Circles for Vermonters
https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/listening - American Folklife Center’s Field Surveys (1977–1998): a story map exploring the AFC’s online collections of materials from the large-scale field surveys that AFC facilitated between 1977 and 1998
https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=b5622c79a95e44d194841ecbb589b66f
Content from Folklorists about COVID-19 and Pandemics
- “We All Need Encouragement: Chain Letters Reemerge in the Coronavirus Pandemic”: An article by Betty Belanus in Folklife Magazine:
https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/chain-letters-reemerge-in-coronavirus-pandemic?fbclid=IwAR2mUf9DTS6ssrLvhQm68E5qyfeKQYL36CKos5a0XEP0he-jUYwQI6l35IQ - “Folklore, Pandemic, and You”: An blog post by Jeanna Jorgensen
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/foxyfolklorist/folklore-pandemic-and-you/ - “Coronavirus conspiracy theories are nothing new”: An article on Washington Daily News, featuring Andrea Kitta
https://www.thewashingtondailynews.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-are-nothing-new/ - New Books Network in Folklore’s Interview with Andrea Kitta about The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore:
https://newbooksnetwork.com/andrea-kitta-the-kiss-of-death-contagion-contamination-and-folklore-utah-state-up-2019/ - University Press of Colorado’s Free Resources for Understanding Cultural Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak: University Press of Colorado is currently offering free access to Jon D. Lee’s An Epidemics of Rumors: How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease and Andrea Kitta’s The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore
https://upcolorado.com/about-us/news-features/item/3825-free-resources-for-for-understanding-cultural-responses-to-the-covid19-outbreak - Folk2404 Urban Legends: A video series by Ian Brodie, discussing Andrea Kitta’s The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore
https://www.youtube.com/user/ianbrodie666/videos?view=2&sort=dd&live_view=503&shelf_id=3 - “The Values—and Dangers—of Folklore during a Global Pandemic: An Article by James Deutsch, featured on Smithsonian Center of Folklife and Cultural Heritage Magazine
https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/values-dangers-of-folklore-global-pandemic - “COVID-19 Gossip, Rumor, Legend, and Conspiracy Theories”: A video by Andrea Kitta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6gKUG6DTE - “Deliberate Infectors and Exotic Origins: The Folklore Behind COVID-19”: An article by Sheila Bock, featured on University of Nevada, Las Vegas News Center
https://www.unlv.edu/news/article/deliberate-infectors-exotic-origins-folklore-behind-covid-19 - “Folklife in the Age of Pandemics”: An article by Maribel Alvarez, featured on Border Lore
https://borderlore.org/folklife-in-the-age-of-pandemics/ - “Why are there so many conspiracy theories around the coronavirus?”:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/conspiracy-theories-coronavirus-200303170729373.html - Folklore and Contagion: Legends and Vernacular Risk Perception: University of Arkansas Libraries created this research guide that compiles resources specific to folklore related to health, contagion, and stigmatized diseases
https://uark.libguides.com/folklorecontagion
Surveys Related to COVID-19 Impact on Artists and Arts Organizations
- Americans for the Arts’ Survey on the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Arts and Cultural Organization:
https://surveys.americansforthearts.org/s3/CoronavirusImpactSurvey - National Humanities Alliance’s Survey of the Impact of COVID-19 on Humanities Institutions: A survey designated for humanities institutions and organizations to share the ways they are serving their constituencies and communities in the face of this crisis as well as their financial and programmatic challenges
https://nha.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6sYyDfVCt35Ut01 - Southwest Folklore Alliance’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Survey: A survey to understand the impact of this crisis on folk, ethnic, and heritage-based communities, businesses, and individuals and to better connect those in need of aid to helpful resources
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YHXWTCJ
Other Collections of Resources
- Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Resources for Traditional Artists Affected by COVID-19:
https://actaonline.org/resources-for-traditional-artists-affected-by-covid-19/ - Americans for the Arts’ Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource and Response Center: Americans for the Arts provides up-to-date news on the crises and provides resources for the arts and culture fields
https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/disaster-preparedness/coronavirus-covid-19-resource-and-response-center#impact - National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures’ Responding to COVID-19 Art Resources and Field Survey: A list of resources including relief efforts, online event directory, and a field survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on artists and art organizations
https://nalac.org/covid-19/ - National Endowment for the Arts’ COVID-19 Resources for Artists and Arts Organization: A list of organizations that are providing frequently updated news and resources for artists and arts organizations
https://www.arts.gov/covid-19-resources-for-artists-and-arts-organizations - Southwest Folklife Alliance’s COVID-19 Support: A list of resources for heritage-based artists, individuals, small businesses, and organizations
https://southwestfolklife.org/covid-19-support/ - The Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies’ COVID-19 Resources for Folklorists: a wide-ranging collection of resources to aid researchers, teachers, archivists, fieldworkers, artists, and those who want to learn more about folklore or pandemics
https://cfs.osu.edu/about/resources/covid-19-resources-folklorists
Other Related News
- “Here’s a List of Colleges’ Plans for Reopening in the Fall”: a searchable database in the Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-a-List-of-Colleges-/248626?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20200520&instance_id=18629&nl=the-morning®i_id=129522574&segment_id=28532&te=1&user_id=56a29a59c6dd83f328ff3b4b23572de6
- “Traditional crafters Indigenizing face masks during COVID-19 pandemic:” An article by Rhiannon Johnson:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-arts-crafts-mask-coronavirus-1.5541049?fbclid=IwAR2nMWzPFxXaqyLZO9fYRR4t2whns8XLU6_dWo_aQ1fC-Ohul2VUsSQM_9Y - “Why we need a new WPA”: An important piece by MLA Director Paula Krebs on why we need the humanities more than ever now, citing multiple folklorists in her piece
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/opinions/works-progress-administration-for-covid-19-crisis-humanities-krebs/index.html - “As COVID-19 Reshapes the World, Cultural Institutions Collect Oral Histories”: An article by Katherine J. Wu, featured on Smithsonian Magazine
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/covid-19-reshapes-world-cultural-institutions-collect-oral-histories-180974613/
Official COVID-19 Information
- Official COVID-19 Information:
https://www.coronavirus.gov/ - World Health Organization’s Advice to the Public:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public - Center of Disease Control and Prevention’s Recommendation for Travel:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html
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