Franco-American & French Canadian Bus Tour of East Hartford and Hebron, 2008
SubjectPortrait of
Daniel Boucher
American, born 1980
SubjectPortrait of
Colette Fournier
Date2008 March 8
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
DescriptionPhotographs of the French Canadian/Franco-American Bus Tour visiting the Hebron Maple Festival in Hebron and the French Social Circle in East Hartford on March 8, 2008.
(.27) Bus tour participants settling in at the French Social Circle Hall to listen to music and have dinner.
(.28-.30) French Canadian-American musicians Daniel Boucher and Colette Fournier playing fiddle at the French Social Circle Hall for the bus tour.
(.31) Daniel Boucher and other musicians playing fiddle at the French Social Circle Hall for the bus tour. The French Social Circle of Hartford banner is on the wall.
(.32-.37) Blacksmiths at Country Carpenters in Hebron working during the bus tour visit to Hebron.
(.38-.40) Bus tour visiting Wenzel Sugar House in Hebron.
(.27) Bus tour participants settling in at the French Social Circle Hall to listen to music and have dinner.
(.28-.30) French Canadian-American musicians Daniel Boucher and Colette Fournier playing fiddle at the French Social Circle Hall for the bus tour.
(.31) Daniel Boucher and other musicians playing fiddle at the French Social Circle Hall for the bus tour. The French Social Circle of Hartford banner is on the wall.
(.32-.37) Blacksmiths at Country Carpenters in Hebron working during the bus tour visit to Hebron.
(.38-.40) Bus tour visiting Wenzel Sugar House in Hebron.
Object number2015.196.548.27-.40
CopyrightIn Copyright
NotesSubject Note: The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Institute for Community Research collaborated with Manchester Community College (MCC) on a cultural tourism project in 2004-2008. Each year, three or four day-long bus tours visited cultural events and artist studios in ethnic communities living in different parts of the state as a way for new audiences to experience and meet Connecticut’s ethnic and occupational communities. Project goals included 1) expanding awareness of unfamiliar art forms and heritage tourism assets, 2) encouraging access to little-known ethnic or occupational communities, 3) creating audience and artist interactions, 4) stimulating sales and commissions of traditional arts and foods, and 5) developing new partnerships with community organizations and artists. The tours were developed and led by the Connecticut state folk arts program director, Lynne Williamson along with artists from each community. The partnership with MCC ensured that the tours were advertised in the Credit-Free Catalogue each semester. Audiences for the tours were primarily members of the Older Adults Association, a core audience for MCC’s Credit-Free courses. Each day-long bus tour included a visit to folk artists’ studios or shops to observe them producing or selling their work, while engaging with visitors in discussions on the history of their communities and the background of their art form. Tours stopped at related landmarks and/or restaurants in the artists’ neighborhoods, or attended a local community festival. The artists and community groups visited gave insightful presentations on their cultures and artistic traditions. Each tour included a traditional dinner or lunch where visitors could sit down to eat and talk with the artists and community members. CCHAP received an NEA Challenge America Cultural Tourism grant for a pilot series of bus tours in 2004. Subsequent project funders also included the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
On March 8, 2008, a tour focusing on French Canadian/Franco-American traditions in Connecticut visited sites and events in Hebron and East Hartford. The tour traveled to the 18th Annual Hebron Maple Festival, visiting several working sugar houses as well as other maple-oriented activities happening throughout the town. Tour stops included Pierce’s sugar house on Route 66, Hope Valley Sugar House on Hope Valley Road, booths and vendors throughout downtown Hebron, Country Carpenters on Gilead St., and the Wenzel Sugar House on East St. The tour group then traveled to the East Hartford French Social Circle Hall for a late afternoon French soirée with traditional French music provided by the dynamic fiddler Daniel Boucher and friends, and included a supper of typical French dishes such as tourtiere, and sugar on snow and a presentation by the French Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut.
Biographical Note: Daniel Boucher is a talented fiddle player and composer from Bristol CT who learned French Canadian songs from his father and other musicians in the local community. A dynamic performer and cultural activist as well as a fine singer and composer of traditional-style songs, Daniel revitalized French Canadian folk music in Connecticut in the 2000s by organizing very popular soirées, dance parties, and seasonal celebrations including his annual Maple Sugar Party. Daniel has performed with New England-based French Canadian music groups such as Chanterelle and The Beaudoin Family, and with singer Josée Vachon. His performances include the Québec 400 celebrations in Québec City in 2008, dance parties at Le Foyer in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the Blackstone River Theater in Cumberland, Rhode Island, French Day at the State Capitol in Hartford, and folk festivals in Lowell, Massachusetts and Bangor, Maine. Daniel’s concerts inspire audiences to participate in dancing, call and response singing, or playing the spoons. CCHAP first worked with Daniel in 1998 when he played with his father Jules at the opening of the Sur Bois: Franco-American Woodcarvers of New England, a traveling exhibit presented by CCHAP at the Institute for Community Research gallery. A dynamic performer and cultural activist, Daniel organized regular French-Canadian music jams and cultural events/celebrations around central Connecticut, drawing participants from all over New England. CCHAP presented Daniel with a group of French-Canadian musicians at the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress “Homegrown: Music of America” series in 2011, and he played with Josée Vachon and Patrick Ross at an outdoor concert at CHS in 2015. Daniel’s father Jules constructed a sugar house on the family’s property in Bristol CT (rebuilt and expanded in 2013) and they tap hundreds of trees to boil the sap into sugar each spring. Substantial CCHAP archive materials exist for Daniel and his events.
Daniel Boucher has been part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program as both master and student over the years. He worked with renowned Quebecois fiddler Rosaire Lehoux in Year 7 ((2004-2005), learning Rosaire’s “crooked tunes,” and with Donna Hébert in Year 4 (2001-2002). He taught his own traditional fiddle compositions to 15-year old Nate Ouellette in Year 9, and in Year 10 (2007-2008) worked with Colette Fournier on French Canadian songs and Jean Galipeau in Year 15 (2012-2013). Dan and Colette performed at a soiree organized by CCHAP for one of our cultural bus tours, and then again at the State Capitol before a large crowd commemorating Jean de Baptiste Day. Dan and Colette, along with former participants Donna Hebert and Nate Ouellette, have played all over New England with the Beaudoin project, a region-wide music preservation initiative, and at festivals, soirees, and house parties.
Subject Note: The French Social Circle of Hartford is an organization that brings together French-Canadian, Franco-American, and French-speaking residents in Connecticut. The group operated a club in East Hartford and has moved to a new space in Vernon in 2021. Background from its Facebook page: “About French Social Circle of Hartford - The French Social Circle of Hartford was organized in May of 1925 and incorporated in June 1931 by a small group of pioneers with the purpose of promoting the social, civic and national interests of persons of French descent. Today, the Club is a place for social gathering and continuing the traditions of its members. On a day-to-day basis, the French Social Circle is a fully operational private club which welcomes the public. There is a full, cash-only bar with snacks available and happy-hour specials; as well as a hall with full kitchen for rental. Along with several annual events, the Club hosts many events each month; some solely for entertainment and some as fund- and awareness-raisers for the Club itself or many other community causes. Although food is not regularly served, there are many planned dinners and breakfasts to which the public is welcome.”
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this event and these artists.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Subject Terms
- Sugarhouses
- Bus tours
- Franco-Americans
- French Canadian Americans
- French Canadian music
- Maple sugaring
- Musicians
- Fiddle playing
- Metalwork
- Iron foundries
- Iron
- Fairs
- Festivals
- French Canadian music
- French-Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut
- Photography
- CCHAP Archive IMLS Museums for America Grant
- Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP)
- East Hartford
- Hebron
On View
Not on view
John Monteiro
2005 June 19
Raquel Figueiredo
2005 June 19
2008 April 19
Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez
2004 October
