Dwight DeVane
Folklorist Dwight DeVane initially worked as a resource consultant for the North Florida Folklife Project with fellow folklorists Brenda McCallum and Peggy Bulger. After two years of graduate study at Western Kentucky University, DeVane returned to Florida in 1980 to work with Bulger and Doris Dyen on additional field recordings. He then co-directed and co-produced (with McCallum) the Drop On Down in Florida album featuring African-America sacred and secular music in Florida. Drop on Down was reissued in 2012 as a book and two-disc album.
In 1981, DeVane was the project director for the Folk Arts in the Schools. In collaboration with the Hillsborough County School System and the Tampa-Hillsborough County Arts Council, this project incorporated the study of regional, ethnic, and occupational folklife within the existing format of the mandated Florida Studies curriculum in five fourth- and eighth- grade classes.
DeVane’s archived photographs and recordings were included in the 2005 Florida Folklife Program exhibit, Florida’s Got the Blues. He has also worked as a consultant for the National Folklife Festival, Florida Folk Festival, and Pinecastle Center for the Arts, and established the cane-grinding demonstration areas for Pinecastle and Morningside Nature Center in Gainesville, Florida.
