An ancient craft comes alive at Fort Delaware

NARROWSBURG, NY — Master blacksmith Robert Mancuso will demonstrate his craft at Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial History on Route 97 on Friday and Saturday, May 31 and June 1, and Friday and Saturday, June 7 and 8.

These will be the first of several “Weekends of Colonial Folk Art” presented by The Tusten Historical Society, Narrowsburg and Fort Delaware Museum this summer at the fort, with assistance from a grant through the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance. Carla Giuffrida, a fiber artist, will have interactive demonstrations July 11 through 14, and woodworker Carl Brown will be showing his skills August 8 through 11.

Mancuso, a resident of Orange City, FL, trained for his hobby at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. After retiring from teaching, he began demonstrating for school field trips at the Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts, an adjunct classroom of the Volusia County School System in Florida. A member of the Florida Artist Blacksmith Association, the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America, the Florida Knifemakers Association and the American Bladesmith Society, he is active in the Boy Scout movement, where he is a merit badge counselor. He discovered Fort Delaware while visiting family in the Upper Delaware River Valley, and agreed to do the demonstrations here.

Fort Delaware is open weekends Memorial Day through June. Hours are Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. Starting on June 27, the hours will be expanded to include Fridays, through Labor Day.

For more information call 845/252-6660 or 845/794-3000, ext. 5002.