How was folk art discovered?

Question:

How was folk art discovered?

folk art

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Well, folk art has always been "around". People who lived in the countryside used to learn traditions from their parents, until last century when the industrialization and urbanization made people not give much damn about such things anymore.

If you're asking about how did certain legends, stories and poems labeled as "folk art" got into books...well, in the years between 1770 and 1860(roughly), there was this cultural movement called the Romanticism. Writers got really interested in the traditions of their own countries, myths, legends, and national identity. So they would go to villages, ask people to tell stories or sing, and they would write them down. So I guess that would account as a "discovery" of folk art, in the way that it was finally published.