Ellen McHale, who has served as the Executive Director of New York Folklore since 1999, has announced that she is retiring May 1, 2027. Over the past 27 years she has grown the statewide organization into a model for the rest of the nation.
New York Folklore (formerly known as the New York Folklore Society) supports folk and traditional artists and organizations, showcases traditional arts and culture of New York State, connects traditional artists and communities to a network of artists and tradition bearers, produces publications and programs, and builds community-based skills and expertise for greater appreciation of New York’s diverse communities and heritages.
Formed in 1944, New York Folklore began as a scholarly organization dedicated to folklore and folk culture in New York and has enjoyed a long history of activism in public folklore.
The organization became New York State’s technical assistance provider for folk and traditional arts in 1990 and has enjoyed a long partnership with the Folk and Traditional Arts Program of the New York State Council on the Arts in that role.
Besides serving as a folk cultural resource for artists and organizations, New York Folklore publishes the journal Voices: The
Journal of New York Folklore and manages and presents the annual New York Folk Arts Roundtable (a professional development conference).
It also provides a variety of technical assistance and professional development opportunities in folk and traditional arts and culture, including artists in the schools programs, entrepreneurial opportunities for artists, and fiscal sponsorships for artists and unincorporated cultural organizations.
The organization is headquartered on Jay Street in downtown Schenectady, NY, where it hosts public programs and a gallery.
“New York Folklore has been more than a job,” she says. “It has been the people with whom I’ve worked: the artists and tradition bearers, the community leaders, and my public folklore colleagues who share my passionate support for the traditional arts and cultural activities of our diverse country.”
Among the examples of McHale’s numerous contributions to the worlds of public folklore and community-based arts is her fieldwork documenting the occupational life and lore of workers on thoroughbred racetracks in the United States, for which she was awarded an Archie Green Fellowship from the Library of Congress in 2012.
This work resulted in the monograph, Stable Views: Voices and Stories of the Thoroughbred Racetrack (Mississippi Press, 2014).
In 2024, McHale was elected as a Fellow of the American Folklore Society, an honorary body of folklorists recognized for their outstanding contributions to the field.
“Ellen has been instrumental in getting valuable resources and support into grassroots communities all across New York State,” notes Wilfredo Morel, New York Folklore Board President.
“I’ve seen it first hand: Communities doing work caring for one another and their traditions for generations, not aware that what they were doing is ‘folklife’ — and that there were resources available to support their work,” he said in announcing McHale’s retirement from the organization.
“Wherever there’s been a need, Ellen has deployed people. In the Hudson Valley, where I live, work and create, I have seen the synergy that New York Folklore helps facilitate firsthand.”
Prior to her work at New York Folklore, Ellen McHale worked as a public sector folklorist in several locations across New York State. She initiated folk arts programs at Arts Mid-Hudson and the Arts Center for the Capital Region, and served as a consulting folklorist for many cultural organizations.
McHale also served as Executive Director of the Shaker Heritage Society and later as the Director of the Schoharie County Historical Society. She was also a Fullbright Fellow (Sweden/Senior Fellow), where she served as a guest lecturer for the University of Stockholm.
She received her PhD. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania.
New York Folklore’s Board of Directors is expected to share information about an upcoming celebration to honor McHale in the coming weeks.
The Board has established a transition committee to oversee the search for New York Folklore’s next leader and plan for this exciting next stage of the organization’s growth. A national search is now underway and a full job description and application can be found here.
Visit New York Folklore to learn more about the organization.
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