Paper short abstract:

This paper explores resonances between village revitalization projects in Bulgaria (responding to depopulation and cultural loss) and North American folk schools. I will overview the Bulgarian context and suggest avenues for comparative conversation between global creative education programs.

Paper long abstract:

During a conversation with one of my collaborators in Bulgaria—a young, urban woman working with a team of village revitalization project facilitators—I shared the history of folk schools in the North American context. After listening, she replied, “These sound like our program, Residentsiia Baba.”

This paper explores resonances between contemporary Bulgaria’s folklife-based revitalization projects and North American folk schools. In particular, I will discuss similarities with early folk schools in the Appalachian region and their motivating ideologies. Revitalization projects in Bulgaria rely on collaborations between villagers, village cultural centers (chitalishta), and contemporary young, urban Bulgarians, in response to uncertainties posed by depopulation, cultural loss, and intergenerational breakage. Participants in these programs are generally young adults living in cities, most of whom do not have connections to village life. While the projects aim to foster mutual growth between rural residents and urban participants, their programming also inadvertently relies on tropes of urban ingenuity and rural traditionality as cures to societal ills.

My presentation will offer an overview of projects and cultural centers in the Bulgarian context and suggest possible avenues for comparative conversation between global creative education programs. What do we seek to gain by discussing the resonances between seemingly disconnected movements? How can the illuminations of one context unlock the questions of another?