Since closing its galleries in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) has encouraged its community to interact with the museum through virtual AFAM from Home programming. Such programs have included (but are not limited to) exhibition tours, drawing sessions, readings, and concerts, as well as downloadable art-making activity guides and coloring pages. We have been thrilled to see participants join us for these programs and activities from around the world!

During this time of collective distancing, we want to record and preserve the creativity of our broader community and invite you to contribute artworks and reflections to the AFAM from Home Archive. This archive will constitute a record of the history of the museum and this crisis for future generations of researchers and patrons. 

The AFAM from Home Archive collects, shares and preserves how the American Folk Art Museum’s community of staff, patrons, and friends have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. This Collection is part of the American Folk Art Museum Archives, a resource dedicated to preserving the history of the American Folk Art Museum and the global development of the field of folk art, self-taught art, and art brut.

Submission Instructions:

Anyone over the age of 13 years old may donate. We invite submissions that reflect diverse lived experiences of members of AFAM’s community in New York and abroad during this pandemic. Submissions may include, but are not limited to, artworks, photographs, personal reflections, recreations of works in AFAM’s collection, poems, or stories. Feel free to be creative! 

We especially encourage submissions of works created through AFAM’s virtual programming. AFAM’s wide array of virtual programs, resources, and activities can be found at folkartmuseum.org.

Please fill out our online submission form if you would like to contribute to the Archives.  

Please email AFAM’s Archivist, Regina Carra, at research@folkartmuseum.org if you have any questions.