Conditions Governing Access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Processing Note
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Related Material
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Craft and Folk Art Museum records
Creator:
Craft and Folk Art Museum
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1835
Physical Description:
225 Linear Feet
(550 boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 1965-1997
Abstract: The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM)
and its predecessor, The Egg and The Eye Gallery, was an active part of "Museum Row" at 5814
Wilshire Blvd. on Los Angeles' Miracle Mile in the mid-Wilshire district, showing fine
craft, international folk art, and design for over 30 years. It also became well known,
starting in 1976, for its International Festival of Masks, a weekend event produced
annually, co-sponsored by the City and County of L.A. The records collection documents the
life of the institution beginning at the inception of The Egg and The Eye Gallery in 1965
and concluding at the end of 1997 when the Craft and Folk Art Museum closed temporarily. The
collection consists of papers, publications, photographs, press clippings and media
releases, slides, audiotapes, videotapes, films, memorabilia, and objects. The materials in
its 550 document boxes and 56 oversized boxes record a historic period in California and
American art and museum history when the way that objects, both traditional and
contemporary, were displayed began to change, first being viewed solely as art forms in a
gallery context and gradually evolving to include cultural information and community
input.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access
special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on
this page.
Language of Material:
English .
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed
audiovisual materials. Audiovisual materials are not currently available for access, unless
otherwise noted in a Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at the series
and file levels. All requests to access processed materials must be made in advance using
the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All
other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not
hold the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Craft and Folk Art Museum records (Collection Number 1835).
Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of the Craft and Folk Art Museum, 1997.
Processing Note
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make
them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and
resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level
of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts
more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to
national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by Joan Benedetti, Heather Lowe, Linda Klouzal, and Michelle Arens in the Center
for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), under the supervision of Kelley Wolfe Bachli,
2010.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) and its predecessor, The Egg and The Eye Gallery, was
an active part of "Museum Row" at 5814 Wilshire Blvd. on Los Angeles' Miracle Mile in the
mid-Wilshire district, showing fine craft, international folk art, and design for over 30
years. It also became well known, starting in 1976, for its International Festival of Masks,
a weekend event produced annually, co-sponsored by the City and County of L.A. The
collection begins at the inception of The Egg and The Eye Gallery in 1965 and concludes in
1997, when the Craft and Folk Art Museum temporarily closed.
Edith R. Wyle founded The Egg and The Eye Gallery in 1965, a commercial folk art and crafts
gallery, which evolved into the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in 1975. (The museum
received its nonprofit status from the IRS in April 1973, but the first exhibitions
organized by CAFAM were not mounted until August 1975.) The museum carried on the gallery's
interest in contemporary crafts and international folk art, and in the eighties added
product design and vernacular architecture to its program. The museum was a showcase for the
material culture of the world at a time when there were few ethnically specific art
institutions in Los Angeles. CAFAM was known for the involvement of local cultural
communities in its planning and execution of exhibitions of folk art, its exhibitions of
contemporary fine craft, and for showing architectural and furniture prototypes. For almost
20 years (1976 – 1995), it produced the International Festival of Masks, co-sponsored by the
City and County of L.A., which involved over 100 local cultural groups in a weekend of
festivities: a masked parade, two days of nonstop performances, and food and demonstration
booths run by many of the local community organizations. It was the first, and for many
years the only, Los Angeles organization to sponsor this type of multicultural event.
Education was always an integral part of both the gallery's and the museum's programming,
with lectures, demonstrations, workshops, programs in the schools, film series,
storytelling, and many hands-on activities for adults and children; the educator's files
include the many flyers, brochures, and clippings concerning all of these events. The
importance of graphic design to the institution is reflected in the many professionally
designed brochures, posters, newsletters, and catalogs that were produced. Exhibition
installation design was equally important and is documented with thousands of slides and
photographs. The registrar's files document the acquisition of the objects in the permanent
collection and the physical and legal care taking of objects borrowed for exhibitions.
Public relations was an essential aspect of both the gallery and the museum and the large
files of media releases, clippings, and photographs document the many types of events
sponsored by the museum. Early on a research library was organized to service the
information and scholarly needs of curators, other staff, docents, volunteers, and the
public, as well as acting as a depository for documents of the museum's history. The
development files confirm the wide range of foundations, government agencies, and
individuals that supported all of these programs. Administrative and board of trustees files
record the decision-making processes that guided the institution over the first 32
years.
After closing temporarily at the end of 1997 due to financial difficulties, the museum sold
its permanent object collection at auction. Its library was given to the L.A. County Museum
of Art Research Library and its institutional records to UCLA Library Special Collections.
In the Spring of 1999, it regrouped and reopened in partnership with the City of Los Angeles
Cultural Affairs Department, with an active exhibition and education program, at its
original location at 5814 Wilshire Boulevard.
Scope and Content
The Craft and Folk Art Museum Records consist of 550 document boxes and 56 oversized boxes
of papers, publications, photographs, press clippings and media releases, slides,
audiotapes, videotapes, films, memorabilia, and objects. These materials document fully the
life of the organization from the inception of its predecessor, The Egg and The Eye Gallery,
in 1965 until the temporary closing of the museum at the end of 1997.
Besides administrative, trustee, departmental, and special events files, the most
significant series within the archives are those of CAFAM's predecessor, The Egg and The Eye
Gallery; Craft and Folk Art Museum Exhibitions; Festival of Masks; the P.E.T. (Preservation
of Ethnic Traditions) files; the Language of Objects Project files; and the files of the
Center for the Study of Art and Culture, an adjunct program of the CAFAM research library,
intended to be a fellowship program and "think tank." All exhibitions, festivals, and
special events are documented with slides, as well as photographs, audiotapes, videotapes,
films, posters, and other memorabilia. The latter includes awards, t-shirts, signage,
admission and promotional buttons, etc.
Organization and Arrangement
The CAFAM Records are divided into 21 record groups; each record group is subdivided into a
number of series. The record groups correspond roughly to the original order of the files,
most of which were created by staff of the various museum departments or coordinators of
events. Some record groups are divided by media, e.g., posters, memorabilia, and audiovisual
materials. There is a good deal of crossover of subject matter between record groups. For
example, although most exhibition materials will be found in Record Group 10 (Exhibitions),
loan and insurance forms and permanent collection records will be found in Record Group 8
(Registrar); some materials related to grant-writing for exhibitions will probably be found
in Record Group 3 (Development); some media releases and correspondence related to
exhibition publicity will be found in Record Group 4 (Public Relations); and education
programs related to exhibitions may be found in Record Group 6 (Education). Some
cross-references are provided in the scope and content notes. but if one is looking for
files related to a specific event or a particular person, it will always be best to first do
a keyword search. Within each series, files are generally in order either alphabetically or
chronologically, whichever is most appropriate to the series. University of California, Los
Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections. Los Angeles, California
90095-1575University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Related Material
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Museums -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archives.
Craft and Folk Art Museum