This is the event summary for the 2008 Envoye à Maison! celebration, which was the event at which the bread oven was built. It is included here to provide the historical context for the oven's existence here in Cambridge.
October 2-5, 2008 in Cambridge, Washington County, NY
Celebrating Quebec’s 400th Anniversary with a 4-day, 10-event celebration of our connection to Quebec. This event will include cultural exchange of music, dance, crafts, food, the building of an outdoor bread oven, and the making a documentary film of the oven construction.
Part of a larger project linking Quebec artists and communities with northern NY, Vermont and Rhode Island, mid-June to early October 2008, with the Folklife Center receiving over $10,000 in funding for our local component.
Hosting: 8 Quebec artists, 6 local artists, 3 filmmakers, 3 out-of-town guests.
Project Director: Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library
Local partners: Hubbard Hall Projects, Inc. Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge Farmers Market.
Publicity: postcard, booklet & schedul insert, newsletter articles, websites, web calendars, local yard signs, oversize posters, feature news articles.
Collection development: books on bread ovens, Quebec folk art (snowshoes, basket), documentary film (post-production is in process as of March 2009)
Community development: Hubbard Hall has formed a cooperative of neighbors who fire the bread oven almost every week to bake bread, host pizza parties, demonstrate to students, etc.
The Folklife Center, with guest folk artists, have been tentatively invited to a Montreal Festival in September 2009 as guests of our Quebec hosts.
Submitted by Todd DeGarmo, Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library
