Wisconsin Life

The idea for the Folklore Village began with one woman's love for art, dancing, and bringing community together. Today, a diverse array of cultural traditions are being explored and celebrated at the village, according to executive director Terri Van Orman. All kinds of wonderful things go on here from folk dancing to singing to craft making. We host special groups who come here. They're usually musical groups or dancing groups. Another thing is something started just three years ago and it's-- we're calling it our folk school where people sign up with a particular artist or instructor to spend anywhere from half a day to several days, and generally, they are focusing on learning skills by making a thing. I mean, it allows a lot of different types of expressions and that's one thing I love about our mission. Another learning opportunity and ongoing project on-site is the Norwegian Cabin Rebuild. Originally constructed by hand in the 1840s, and recently saved by the Folklore Village. We did that and they took the building down and they numbered every log and they did a big schematic about how to put it back together. Mr. Nels Diller, he wanted to do it because he had just retired and he needed a project and he would like to adopt this project. Since I finished my career as a carpenter, I've doing Norwegian woodworking and I like to explain that actually, I may be Swedish, but I'm a born again Norwegian, I feel. Soon after, the work to rebuild the cabin began. Volunteers and interns like Lauren Newby had the opportunity to experience using tools from another era. I would say my favorite part about this experience is learning from Nels. He's really has a lot of really amazing information, both about what it means to work with wood, the way he approaches life and building; I feel like should not be lost in this generation. And I think that's really surprising to see how far we can take hand tools. And to make something so large and so useful

laughs

has been really, really amazing to see it come into fruition.

sawing