Join the VAF! 

   During the past twenty-five years, interest in the ordinary architecture of North America has grown rapidly and in diverse directions.  Scholars and field professionals now apply the term "vernacular architecture" to traditional domestic and agricultural buildings, industrial and commercial structures, twentieth-century suburban houses, settlement patterns and cultural landscapes.  The Vernacular Architecture Forum was formed in 1980 to encourage the study and preservation of these informative and valuable material resources.

     In both membership and methods, VAF embraces the value of multidisciplinary interaction.  Historians, designers, archaeologists, folklorists, architectural historians, geographers, museum curators and historic preservationists contribute substantially to the organization.  Just as wide ranging are the interests and research subjects of our members.  Some emphasize construction methods and materials.  Others use building types or regional surveys as data for social and cultural interpretations.  Many members do both.  Topics of study include the community planning from eighteenth-century cities to Civil War encampments to Nevada ranching towns; regional and cultural differences of traditional houses, particularly as they relate to ethnicity and race; religious architecture of various times, places and denominations; farm buildings from pattern-book dwellings to sod houses as well as barns and other components of agricultural production; and, increasingly, the complex and contradictory phenomenon of popular culture and architecture in the twentieth century.

     If you are interested in learning more about vernacular architecture in North America (including the United States, Canada, Mexico and the West Indies) and in building associations with hundreds of kindred souls from all parts of the continent and the world, then you should join the Vernacular Architecture Forum today.

 

     

    Gabrielle M. Lanier,  Secretary 
    Vernacular Architecture Forum 
    P.O. Box 1511
    Harrisonburg, VA 22803-1511

    Dear Gabrielle, 

    Please enroll me as a member of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.  I understand that membership entitles me to one issue of the annual fall journal Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture and four issues of the Vernacular Architecture Newsletter, and that my newsletter subscription will begin with the next issue after the receipt of my dues. Membership also includes enrollment in our online listserve and members receive priority mailing for conferences (since field tours fill quickly).  

    *All receipts above the basic membership levels will be applied toward the giving category of your choice (please check one):
     ___ Student and Professional Support Fund (including grants, fellowships, and awards)
    ___ Publications Fund (including PVA, VAN, and special publications)
    ___ VAF Endowment Fund.
     

    __ Active, $45      __ Institution, $75      __ Contributing, $75    __ Patron, $150 

    __ Multiple Year: __ years x $45

    __ Household, $65 (includes one copy of publications per household)

    __ Student, $25   I am currently enrolled at ________________________________ 

    __ Lifetime, $2,000 (Payable in four $500 installments over a four-year period)

    Name ____________________________________________________________ 

    Address __________________________________________________________ 

    _________________________________________________________________ 

    City _________________________State/Province _____________Zip _________ 

    E-mail (if you wish to take part in our online listserve): ___________________________________________________________________

    Note: Memberships must be paid for by check or money order in U.S. funds. VAF does not currently accept credit cards.

    Please consider an additional gift in support of VAF programs

         $______ Student and Professional Support Fund

         $______ Publications Fund

         $______ VAF Endowment Fund

     

     Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture (PVA) is an annual journal representing the best recent scholarship in North American vernacular architecture. Begun in 1982 as a series of books, Perspectives is now published annually by the VAF with the support of Washington and Lee University. It will be mailed to all VAF members each fall.

     The Vernacular Architecture Newsletter (VAN), published quarterly, informs VAF members of upcoming events, funding opportunities, related conferences, publications, exhibitions, and job opportunities. The VAN also includes book and exhibit reviews and feature articles as well as the most recent additions to the cumulative VAF Bibliography, which was begun in the 1980s and has been expanded with each successive issue.