Our Hungarian friends taught me this saying during the 2013 Folklife Festival. It translates literally to “one swallow does not a summer make,” or as they explained it to me, an individual needs help to make a difference.

We need your help to make a difference. Please support the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to help us support cultural sustainability and vitality.

I hope you include the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in your year-end giving. Your gift is tax-deductible and supports our mission to present and preserve cultural traditions from around the country and the world. A gift of $25, $50, $150, or more by December 31 will go a long way toward developing with programming in 2014.

Our whole team sincerely appreciates your support—whether you visited us at the 2013 Festival or purchased an album from Smithsonian Folkways Records. Your kindness and your generosity make possible all that we do. We thank you and wish you the best of the season.

Sincerely,

Michael Atwood Mason, PhD.
Director, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Image credits: Evening dances at the dance barn, photo by Francisco X. Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution