MinstrelBanjo.com
Title
Hartel Minstrel banjo
Description
James Hartel made his first banjo in 1973 and has continued to play and make banjos ever since. During the last few years, he's been focusing on the history of the banjo in America and reproducing early minstrel banjos.
At the Banjo Collectors' Gathering in Williamsburg, Virginia, November, 2004. Bob Winans' original James Ashborn banjo in my left hand and my Ashborn reproduction in my right.
Jim has worked as a museum administrator, a visual artist, and teacher. He was executive director of the Tonawandas' Council on the Arts, video curator for Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, director of Artists' Gallery of Western NY, and the education curator of the Burchfield-Penny Art Center at Buffalo State College. In addition, he is internationally recognized as a sculptor and video producer. He has served as a grant panelist for public funding organizations including the New York State Council on the Arts and The New York Foundation for the Arts. And, he has received individual grants including a curatorial grant from the Folk Art Program of the New York State Council on the Arts for the "naive" painting exhibition, "Honest to Goodness Art," and a video production grant from the NYSCA for the documentary "The Mechanical Pleasure Ride," which features the legacy of woodcarving in the Herschell-Spillman Carousel Factory of North Tonawanda, NY.
