Cristina Benedetti
Profession:
Public Folklorist at The Ohio State University and the Ohio Arts Council
Five Words About Me:
Calm, Hardworking, Collaborative, Cautious, Curious
One Surprising Skill:
I’m pretty good with a needle and thread. I made a lot of puppets in high school, worked as a costume cleaner and refurbisher for three years before grad school, and in the last few years I costumed a handful of shows for our opera company.
I am a public folklorist working in the state of Ohio. I have degrees in arts management and comparative studies from Ohio State, and I split my time between The Center for Folklore Studies at OSU and the Ohio Arts Council. At OSU I am co-teaching our Ohio Field School course, which for several years has worked with partners in Scioto County on collaborative community documentation. At OAC I am a contractor working on several projects to broaden the agency’s reach in supporting folk and traditional artists in Ohio. I’ve been a student for almost the last decade, but while working on my degrees I was constantly drawn back into creative pursuits. For several years I helped run Opera Project Columbus, a small opera company in Columbus whose mission is to create more opportunities for local singers and instrumentalists to connect with local audiences.