National Folk Music Fund

Ralph Vaughan Williams © Jeffrey Spedding

The National Folk Music Fund was founded in 1958 to provide support to any public library 'wholly or partly devoted to folk dance and/or folk music, and in particular the library of the English Folk Dance and Song Society - the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library'.

While the greater part of the Fund's limited income is used to support the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, the Fund is able on occasions to consider applications for projects involving research into folk music, especially where the fruits of such research will enrich a library collection. A typical grant would be in the region of £500 to £700.

There are other libraries, charities and organisations offering details of research and performing practice of English traditional music, dance and song. Some are:

• The World and Traditional Music section at the British Library Sound Archive - and its Traditional Music in England project contains over a 1,000 hours of recordings.
• The National Centre for English Cultural Tradition & Language - houses projects, thesis, audiotapes, video tapes, film, and photographic collections.
• Folkworks - aims to increase the level of active participation in the folk arts in Northern England.
• The Traditional Song Forum - interested in researching and performing traditional folk songs.
• East Anglian Traditional Music Trust - researches, performs and runs workshops.
• Folk Archive Resource North East - is creating an archive of songs, photos, and sound recordings from collections across North East England.

Useful sites, which provide guides to other websites and Internet resources for those interested in English folk and traditional music are - the Martin Nail site, the English folk home page of the Traditional Drama Research Group, and Musical Traditions Internet Magazine - the magazine for traditional music throughout the world.

Applications for financial support should be made to:

The National Folk Music Fund
c/o Musicians' Benevolent Fund
7-11 Britannia Street
London WC1X 9JS
E-mail: NFMF1958@aol.com
Registered Charity Number 306068

Last update: 13 May, 2009