home / newsletter / SIEF Newsletter Vol 24 No 1 (Spring 2026) / New Working Group: Folk Arts and Vernacular Creativity


Group photo

New Working Group: Folk Arts and Vernacular Creativity

Invitation to Join the SIEF Folk Arts and Vernacular Creativity Working Group

The SIEF Folk Arts and Vernacular Creativity Working Group welcomes researchers and students engaged in or interested in the study of various forms and aspects of the arts—including, but not limited to, folk arts, vernacular creativity, popular art, naïve art, and contemporary art—within current sociocultural contexts. Art is understood in a broad sense (hence the plural form in the title of the working group), encompassing visual, textual, and performative forms. Additionally, the Working Group seeks to critically examine and rethink the terminology associated with folk art, folklorism, folkish art, popular art, vernacular creativity, peasant art, and related terms, as well as the broader notion of art(s) as a social and cultural phenomenon. The working group also focuses on contemporary (elite, professional) art besides folk arts and vernacular creativity, acknowledging their complex interrelationships and the roles, models, and values of the ever-changing “art of the people” in the contemporary world. The Working Group invites scholars who study any forms, functions, aspects, or uses of art(s) in contemporary cultures and societies, while also, if necessary, considering relevant historical backgrounds as much as needed for a comprehensive understanding. To join the mailing list, contact .

Mission

1. Conceptual & Terminological Clarification: To critically examine and redefine key concepts used in academic and public discourse. We will focus on the fluidity, dynamics and hybridity found at the intersections of various creative genres and interpretations (high, provincial, popular, rural, peasant, folk applied and/or decorative art, art brut, arts and crafts, handicrafts, revival, DIY, “ethnic” and world music, vernacular verbality, and related forms.)

2. Practices & Perspectives: To analyze creative practices across time and geography, with attention to the interplay between material/digital forms and human agency, particularly regarding gender, identity, social contexts and power relations.

3. Social, Economic & Political Dimensions: To investigate the role of vernacular creativity in cultural economies, tourism, cultural markets, and creative industries, and its function in community resilience, identity formation, and social memory – including how it reinforces or challenges social hierarchies in both every day and festive contexts.

4. Digital Transformation: To explore how digital technologies and new media create platforms that reshape the creation, circulation, and meaning of vernacular expression and hybrid forms.

5. Interdisciplinary Cooperation: To widen the disciplinary field of study into neighbouring disciplines and foster interdisciplinary dialogue in close collaboration with other SIEF working groups devoted to cultural heritage, museums, rituals, and religion.

Board of the Working Group

Jonas Frykman (Lund University, Sweden) / co-chair; e-mail:
Ágnes Fülemile (Research Institute of Ethnology, ELTE University, Hungary) / co-chair; e-mail:
László Koppány Csáji (Research Institute of Art Theory and Methodology, Hungary), / co-chair and secretary; e-mail:
Mare Kõiva (Estonian Literary Museum, Estonia), board member; e-mail:
Giuseppe Maielo (University of Finance and Administration, Czech Republic), board member; e-mail:

Conference: Folk Art in the Contemporary – Practices and Challenges, 23 – 24 April 2026, University of Lund
The participants in front of the Lund University Building

The participants in front of the Lund University Building.

At the conference venue (Lund University).

At the conference venue (Lund University).

The Lund University and the SIEF Folk Art and Vernacular Creativity Working Group – with the generous support of the Gulli och Nils Strömboms Foundation – organized an international conference titled “Folk Art in the Contemporary – Practices and Challenges” at Lund University on 23-24 April. The event continued the scholarly events started in Split 2024 and was followed by a three-part panel at the SIEF 2025 Congress in Aberdeen. The participants reconsidered academic terminology on folk arts, folklorism, folkish arts, vernacular arts, popular arts, etc., drawing on inductive insights and case studies from ethnology, cultural anthropology, and museology. After these three fruitful events with excellent contributions and thought-provoking discussions, Lund University plans to publish a book with chapters based on the papers presented at the three conferences, edited by Jonas Frykman and Björn Magnusson Staaf, and hopes to have it ready by the next SIEF 2027 Congress in Bolzano. The conference participants covered a wide range of topics of folk and popular arts, vernacular creativity, and related fields. Here is a short description of the papers, following the order of the presentations:

Ágnes Fülemile (ELTE University, Research Center of Humanities, Institute of Ethnology) examined the process from the 19th century to the present, how folk life and folk art were perceived and imaged by painters, shaping the perceptions of not only the elite, but also evolving the demand for countless mediocre works and kitsch, penetrating an increasingly wild social strata with these images.

Fruzsina Cseh (ELTE University, Research Center of Humanities, Institute of Ethnology) outlined the complexity of the institutionalization of folk and applied folk arts in Hungary during the Socialist and Post-Socialist Era, including folkish, folksy, and folkloristic art forms, as well as various forms of folklorism. Consequently, the qualification system constructed the status of (applied) folk artist.

László Koppány Csáji (Research Institute of Art Theory and Methodology at the Hungarian Academy of Arts) explained the relation between historical reenactment, experimental archaeology, artistic reenactment, and the so-called (historical) tradition keepers in Hungary and their perceptions of folk art on the micro (individual) level, mezzo (groups) level, and their sociocultural context.

Jonas Frykman and Björn Magnusson Staaf (Lund University) outlined the origins, history, and proliferation of Swedish summerhouses, and how this expanding phenomenon affected the urban and rural lifeworlds in interaction with social changes. Moreover, in the last decades of the 20th century, the summerhouse became an emblematic image and representation of Swedish culture, inspiring contemporary art as well.

Nikolette Mackovicky (Oxford University) examined the relation between politics and contemporary forms of folk art in Slovakia. The endeavor to appropriate folk art by populist politics elicited several responses: using folk art as a tool and creatively rethinking folk techniques of social resistance. By blurring the borders between folk art and fine arts, these artistic expressions have become forms of social critique.

Mare Kõiva (Estonian Literary Museum) discussed the interrelation between cultural complexity and environment in Estonia. She compared many examples of how cultural changes occurred in everyday life: the dialectics of folklore patterns and innovations were constantly constructed and reconstructed in various forms, creating, for example, toys, dolls, and objects of contemporary spirituality.

Alfonsina Bellio (École Pratique des Hautes Études, EPHE-PSL, Paris) outlined the wide spectrum of folk, popular, and pop art as manifestations of reappropriation in the margins of Southern Italy: Calabrian revival of ephemeral ritual plant-statues (pupazze), Gerardo Sacco’s applied art based on antique and folk motives, and the folk-inspired works of e.g. Giuseppe Fata’s Maria Simulacrum exhibition, in light of Antonio Stallano’s and other theoretical frames.

Anneli Palmsköld (University of Gothenburg) focused on the links between traditional textile and handicraft making and contemporary home-made crafting (such as hand knitting) in light of what to do with leftover yarn and rugs. The attitude of creating as an act of caring can be found in both folk art and contemporary handicraft in Sweden. DIY (do-it-yourself) and DIT (do-it-together) are also common denominators.

Rasa Pranskevičiūtė-Amoson (Vilnius University) focused on an international new religious movement (Anastasians) that originated in Russia in 1997, based on a novel series. They create love circles in the wilderness as an established, eclectic invented tradition, drawing on folk art elements and esoteric contemporary spirituality. This subcultural “imagined indigenousness” reenacts something “folkish” that never existed.

Ewa Klekot (University SWPS, Warsaw) outlined the persistence of the romantic myth of folk art. A new style was invented by the Polish artist Eleonora Plutyńska at the beginning of the 20th century in collaboration with a village weaver. Nevertheless, within three generations of local actors, the Podlasie-region style textile became a local brand, while the local tradition that Ms. Plutyńska rejected as a vernacular but tawdry style went out of fashion and ceased to exist.

After the 30-minute presentations, there were another 15 minutes to discuss them with questions and comments. Papers inspired a lively exchange of ideas and reflections on the presentations.

László Koppány Csáji
WG Folk Arts and Vernacular Creativity Secretary