Building and fostering community
Facilitating and nurturing collaboration
Exploring the world through music and dance
Inspiring and mentoring the next generation of leaders

We welcome any and all to our circles of dance and music—circles of inclusion, not exclusion, and we strive to enlarge these circles that manifest the strong values of community and support to all who join our numbers.

Folk Arts Center of New England leadership

The Folk Arts Center of New England is run by the FAC Executive Director, Program Manager, Board of Directors, and coordinators of events and projects.

Staff

Marcie Van Cleave, Executive Director (since 1988)
Katy Bishop, Office Manager

Founders

Conny Taylor (b. 1921 – d. 2006)
Marianne Patterson Taylor (b. 1930 – d. 2008)

FAC 2020 Board of Directors

Carolyn Ramm (president), Newburyport, MA
Carl Lazarus (vice president), Newton, MA
David Salstein (treasurer), Newton, MA
Lauren Ingram (secretary), Boston, MA
Kathy Hagelston, Arlington, MA
Elizabeth MacLachlan, Jamaica Plain, MA
Jim Madigan, Somerville, MA
Yaron Shragai, Waltham, MA
Harsh Singh, Arlington, MA

The Folk Arts Center of New England’s co-founders Conny and Marianne Taylor started their first weekly international folk dance series on Wednesdays in July 1955 at the Cambridge YWCA’s Hannum Hall in Central Square. The series switched to Thursdays the following year, then added Fridays in 1960.