Educative Encounters, Liminal Advantages and Culturally Inspired Storytelling: A Critical Look at the “Peru: Pachamama” program of the 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Consultancy Team: Dr. Maureen Porter, Jessica Rathbone Davila, Rachael English, Daly Trimble and Sofia Porter Bacon Site visit dates: July 1–5, 2015 Original Report Written by Maureen Porter; summary of report by Betty J. Belanus Introduction During the second five days (July 1-5) of the 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a team of anthropologists/educators from the University of Pittsburgh, working on behalf of the American Folklore Society's Consultancy and Professional Development Program and led by Dr. Maureen Porter, (referred to in the remainder of this document as “The Pittsburgh Team”), visited the Peru: Pachamama program with the charge of participant observation of the educational opportunities and potential of the Festival. Dr. Porter prepared a comprehensive report, the most salient points of which are summarized in this document. (Page references in this report are to the longer document.) These observations are pertinent not only to the future efforts of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, but to other cultural events of various types and scope, as well as to Folklore and Education efforts in other venues (including museums, cultural centers, and classrooms). The complete report (37 pages) can be obtained by contacting Betty J. Belanus at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at belanusb@si.edu . The Pittsburgh Team used the following framing questions to guide their inquiry: What are features of educative moments at the Festival that have the potential to foster positive dispositions for folklife learning? Shifting from a restrictive and dichotomous definition of an idealized, educational Festival to an ethnographic analysis of educative moments that can inspire lasting dispositions helps to identify the kinds of meaningful encounters and authentic modes of engagement that have genuine potential to engage diverse public audiences. How do liminal aspects of the Festival design encourage receptivity and require participants to make their own syntheses? Embracing the inherently liminal aspects of the Festival gathers under one metaphorical tent those aspects that, by their very juxtaposition, provide the contrast and provocation necessary to inspire reflection. How do the design, flow, and association of key items help visitors to make unified sense of the featured cultural groups? When do storytelling spaces and practices inspire new appreciations of culturally inspired modes of sharing wisdom? Storytelling spaces and practices, both staged and spontaneous, offer the necessary means of choreographing mutual encounters that can become catalysts for shifting perspectives on self and other, and in response, in prompting generous exchanges between diverse presenters and audiences. (Porter, p. 3)