Rita Moonsammy reviews old family photos with Annette Ferrari, who creates a traditional Italian feast every St. Joseph's Day.

"One of the reasons that I love folk arts and working with folk life so much is because I love stories. I love the stories of people's lives. And folk art objects are also stories. They're stories of an individual, they're stories of a community and they're so encapsulated."

Rita Moonsammy interviewing the Etsako Storyteller Isi Igetei.

The guest curator of Culture in Context: A Tapestry of Expression is perhaps the person best suited to put an exhibition like this together. Rita Moonsammy, a resident of Tabernacle, New Jersey, has an M A. and Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the person who developed the Folk Arts Apprenticeship program at the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in 1995. During the next few years she was actively involved in establishing the regional folklife centers around the state.

Rita Moonsammy has conducted field research on and documented the traditional life of ethnic, regional, and occupational communities in several states, most extensively in the Northeastern and Delaware Bay areas of New Jersey. Her work has included public programming, program development and administration, and teacher education. She co-produced the NJN documentary films "Schooners on the Bay," "Pinelands Sketches," and "The Seabright Skiff." She is the co-author of Pinelands Folklife and co-curated the exhibition "New Jersey Pinelands: Tradition and Environment" at the New Jersey State Museum. Her book Passing It On is based on an ethnography of Cumberland County, New Jersey, and the resulting teacher education project that brought tradition bearers together with educators to create school programs and curricula.

Rita has taught courses and presented workshops at the University of Pennsylvania, Rowan University, Montclair University, Columbia Teacher's College, Bank Street Teacher's College, University of Delaware. She has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the American Folklore Society, Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, the Pinelands Commission Educational Advisory Board, the Middle Atlantic Folklife Association, and the Northwest Jersey Folklife Project.