I was reading a Fortune.com article published some months ago on folk art (an expression of the world’s traditional cultures according to the International Folk Art Alliance) and how it empowers people to empower other people and communities in financially poor environments.
As women and their children are very often the victims of poverty and violence, the reading gave me the impression that a growing folk art market can be a kind of social catalyst for taking people out of their difficult situations. Even more, it is enabling them to multiply this effect by sharing know-how and access to knowledge. The reason for doing so is that is turns those creators into entrepreneurs who scale and impact their local communities.
One of the most interesting parts of the article read as follows:
“Folk art, which has helped to deliver daily life improvements even in the most remote regions of the earth, offer many lessons that can ultimately yield wider spread gains, contends Manuel Montoya, an economist at the University of New Mexico. Montoya has grown impatient with the constant handwringing over globalism’s impact on local economies. He sees a reverse connection: village economies can offer a nutritious feed to an economy that is dominated by mass production. Increasingly, the globalized economy hungers for the unique and locally made.”
For more info here is a link to the article.
Culture & Capital 