What’s in a Name?

(Quite a lot, actually)

As the folk arts evolve and we look to the future, it’s time for our name to evolve too, writes Peter Craik, the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s Marketing and Communications Director.

English Dance and Song Autumn 2021

This article appears in English Dance and Song, the members’ magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance, EDS was first published in 1936 and is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts. 

 
At the English Folk Dance and Song Society, we celebrate our traditions and our shared history, and we simultaneously look to the future.

Everyone who’s involved in folk music and dance knows this is in no way contradictory – in fact, you could say this constant layering of reinterpretation is the very essence of the folk arts. Every folk artist draws on their antecedents and adds something of themselves to the mix to create something unique and new.

Our members’ activities change and adapt, and so do all the other activities we support. We know we must continue to reach new people, and we’re determined to change the frustratingly widespread mindset that folk is ‘not for me’. How often have you found, when introducing someone to your passion, that their first reaction is based around a whole host of negative assumptions?

So, the Board and staff having been asking themselves that most difficult of questions – does the name of our organisation reinforce some of these beliefs, rather than helping us to challenge them?

As the national organisation for the folk arts, one of our main missions is to support the essential grassroots events that happen in uncountable communities all around England. And the pandemic has broadened our reach: anyone with an internet connection can now participate in our Folk Education Network presentations and chats, or join our Library Conference, or listen in on Katy Spicer’s Folk Folk discussions, or attend Folk Song in England presentations with Steve Roud. Our free Resource Bank provides practical materials for anyone to use in informal or formal education settings, wherever they are. More and more of our Vaughan Williams Memorial Library archives are available online. We hope the new folk dance calendar* will help to introduce many people to the joy of social dancing. All of this, and more, is far from tied to our London headquarters at Cecil Sharp House. If our name included the word England, rather than English, would it support this message that our activities are increasingly less centralised – equally accessible wherever you live?

Many members will know these are not new thoughts, and the time has never been right to take them further. But we’re now hearing, time and time again, from the anecdotal to detailed survey data, that:

• England is where we call home and where we practice our folk activities centred around the traditions of England.
• The word English evokes an incredibly wide range of preconceptions: for some, these are positive feelings of shared identity and belonging, but many others feel marginalised or excluded.

After much (lively!) debate and research amongst stakeholders and the wider world, the Board and staff now agree that a new name would more accurately describe what we are now, and what we want to be. It would help to ensure the preservation of all the traditions of folk arts in England, and also their future development.

We’re not going to rush into any changes – we know that we’ll hear many different views on this proposed change. We want to canvas our members’ thoughts, to have mature discussions, to make sure we do the right thing. If you would like to get involved, please make sure we have your email address so we can send you member updates, and look out for more news about this soon. 

Our phased consultation will invite structured feedback from a wide range of interested parties.

The next stage, as described above, will be to speak with paid-up members of the Society. 

If you would like to contribute to the debate, please be patient and sign up for any of our regular email updates, or join our Folk Education Network, or keep an eye on our social media accounts. We shall be inviting comments through all of these routes in due course.

 An update for members, 5 October 2021

Within the next few weeks, all members for whom we hold an email address will receive a link to a detailed online survey. Details will also appear in the December Board Matters for members who prefer to return a submission by post.

In the meantime, we wanted to reassure you that we are not considering a change to the fundamental aims and objectives of the Society. Our remit continues to be to support and develop ‘English folk dances and songs, other folk music, folk talks and folk drama’ (in the words of the Society’s articles) – concentrating on the folk music and folk dance of England. We strongly believe that continually reappraising what we mean by ‘English’ in 21st-century England is a crucial part of this remit.

Please also be assured that our continuing use of the word FOLK is not up for negotiation!

We will not be employing branding consultants to organise these discussions. This careful and thorough process must be managed from within the organisation, not by outsiders, and must involve as many people as possible rather than a few small focus-groups. 

So far we have had internal discussions at Board level, and with our permanent staff, and with selected freelancers who work with us regularly. We have also asked a few trusted partners for their honest opinions. Our one use of a specialist agency has been to commission a ‘quantitative analysis’ survey in which 1000 people – a cross-section of the whole population – were asked about their personal relationships to the concepts of English and England.

The next important step will be to consult with as many members as possible. After this we shall be seeking further opinions from a still wider constituency – including, very importantly, from people who are not engaging with us as much as we would like.

We hope that you will be able to participate in these important deliberations.

Further Information, 13 December 2021

This information was included in the members’ consultation which was distributed by email in November 2021, and with the December edition of Board Matters

Other names considered by the Board included English Folk, Folk England, The Folk Arts Society, Folk!, Folk for All and Folk Culture. Some other suggestions were Folk For England, Folk Arts Society England, The Folk Arts Association, English Folk Arts, Folk Dance and Song Society and Maypole.

In the consultation with board, staff and selected partners, amongst a total of 65 respondents Folk Arts England was a very clear front-runner:

First or second choice, combined in %: [i.e. total proportion of respondents who selected each name]

Folk Arts England 74%
Folk England 40%
Folk Arts Society 20%
None – keep the current name 20%
Folk for All 20%
English Folk 11%
Folk Culture 5%
Folk! 3%

The name Folk Arts England was used by another organisation until around a decade ago. The previous owners have generously agreed to release the name, should we decide to use it.

Continuing consultations about our name, 4 March 2022

This information was included in the March edition of Board Matters

Thank you to every member who has contributed to the ongoing consultation about the name of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The consultation period was extended after problems with the Royal Mail’s delivery of the printed version, and the eventual deadline has only just passed as we are preparing this edition of Board Matters.

We received a total of 679 responses. [This number was 646 when Board Matters was printed; further responses arrived over the following days].

Around 33% of members who hold a personal membership (Individual, Joint, etc) have contributed, and 17% of Associate (group) members.

It will take some time to analyse the results in detail, and a full breakdown will appear in the June edition of Board Matters. If you would like to receive the report as soon as it is available, please make sure that we have an email address recorded for you on our systems.

The consultation with members is by no means the end of this process. It is important that we seek as wide a range of views as possible, from everyone who has a stake in the future of our organisation.

By the time you are reading this, a wider consultation will be underway. Crucially, this will include asking the views of people who are not currently interacting with the Society as much as we would wish.

This is an important matter and no decisions have been made yet. We look forward to sharing future discussions with our members.