Later this month the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America, a group whose mission is make more professional the business of buying and selling antiques, will honor The American Folk Art Society as the recipient of the 2012 ADA Award of Merit in recognition of the group’s outstanding contributions to the fields of American decorative arts and antiques. The award’s presentation and dinner will be held in conjunction with the prestigious Philadelphia Antiques Show at its new location at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia on April 28th.

Established in 1978 at the forefront of American interest in the subject, the membership of The American Folk Art Society has devoted itself to raising awareness of 18th- and 19th-century American folk art through research and writing, lectures, and the support of public exhibitions. Although a few early American collectors such as Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Electra Havemeyer Webb and Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little made the acquisition of folk art throughout the 20 th century a priority, the real movement to appreciate this untrained and expressive art for its own aesthetic merit did not gain momentum until the late 1970s and early 1980s. As the debate raged about what defined American folk art, members of The American Folk Art Society were pulling artists from obscurity and shedding light on such topics as schoolgirl art, folk art by and about women, African-Americans, and regional folk artists.

Over its thirty-four years of existence, the Society has completed more than sixty research trips, exploring and illuminating the folk art collections of public institutions and private individuals throughout the country—from New York City to Santa Fe, and Williamsburg to Milwaukee.