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What is the Victorian Folklife Association?
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The Victorian Folklife Association ia a not-for-profit cultural organisation incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act (1991)
Through the VFA , individuals and organisations work together to preserve, promote and encourage awareness of the folklife and traditional cultures of the people of Victoria.
How did the Victorian Folklife Association begin?
In 1987, a Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia was set up to consider the nature, diversity and significance of folklife in Australia, and how that folklife could be safeguarded.
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The Committee was sponsored by the Federal Department of Arts, Heritage and Environment, the National Museum of Australia, The Australia Council and the former Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. The report of the committee, published as Folklife: our living heritage contains 51 recommendations. One of these was the establishment of an Australian Folklife Centre, as the committee believed this would provie a national focus for action to record, safeguard and promote awareness of Australia's folklife heritage.
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The Folk Song and Dance Society of Victoria, active in the folk arts since 1965, commissioned a feasibility study in 1990 into the establishment of an Australian Folklife Centre in Melbourne. Funded by the Victorian Ministry for the Arts and the Lance Reichstein Charitable Foundation, the study concluded there was a case for a centrally located facility housing performance, rehersal and workshop spaces, exhibitions, a library and reading room, resource and information services, and a specialist folk retail outlet. The major recommendation of this study was the establishment of an organisation to set up the centre, and in November 1990, the Victorian Folklife Association Inc. was formed.
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