The Screen Painters

Presented by Elaine Eff, University of Maryland

Painted screens are among Baltimore's distinctive folk traditions. An art form found originally in working class ethnic neighborhoods, painted screens have an early history abroad and survive today in unanticipated forms and locations.

Folklorist Elaine Eff has spent much of her professional life uncovering this Baltimore story, the artists, the architecture, the changing communities. She shared the award winning documentary film, The Screen Painters, and led a discussion of the state of the art, its practitioners today, and outlook for the future.

She is now writing the book "Picture Windows" for University Press of Mississippi. Eff is co-Director of Maryland Traditions, the statewide folklife program based at the Maryland State Arts Council and Folklorist-in-Residence in the American Studies Department at University of Maryland Baltimore County. She can be reached at elaine.eff@verizon.net.