Current Projects of The Guild

It is the goal of the Guild of St. George to perpetuate Living History as an educational and community resource. The following is a list of our current programs. Funding for these programs will come from a variety of sources including a national grant campaign, user fees, individual donations, and performance fees.

In-School Programs
Current school systems in Southern California include the Yucaipa School District and the Los Angeles County Unified School District. It is our intention to formalize program offerings to Northern California schools beginning in 2002.

Elizabethan Court Dance Performances
The Guild maintains an ongoing Elizabethan Court Dance Troupe. The Troupe performs regularly in various locations throughout California. Recent performances include the Santa Barbara Renaissance Faire, Humanities West Elizabeth I Symposium at the San Francisco Herbst Theater, the California Culinary Academy in St. Helena, and the Shakespeare Oxford Society National Convention at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco.

The St. George Early Music Ensemble
The Guild maintains an ongoing Elizabethan Court Madrigal Ensemble. The Ensemble performs regularly in various locations throughout Southern California. Recent performances include the Santa Barbara Renaissance Fair, Loyola Marymount University, Country Villa Terrace Assisted Living Center in Los Angeles, and the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Arcadia.

New Queen's Ha' Penny Consort
The New Queen's Ha' Penny Consort is our recorder ensemble in Northern California which plays for our dancers as well as for the courtly environment. Founded in the 1960's in Oakland, California, the consort became a part of The Guild of St. George in the early 1990's. In addition to the consort regulars, selected other musicians play both independently and with the ensemble as occasion and circumstances dictate.

The Music of St. George
The Music of St. George is the Guild's madrigal choral project. Its original intent was to arrange, organize, and check for accuracy the Elizabethan choral music in use by the Guild's madrigal group. It will shortly be expanded, making the work available to Elizabethan scholars and other interested parties by providing online access to many of the pieces in both audio and printable formats. It is the goal of this project to produce the work in a number of published volumes and to expand the online resource. A collection of Elizabethan Christmas Carols is also being considered.

The LHC/St. George Library
Recently granted to the Guild by the Living History Centre, the Library is a collection of approximately 2000 volumes on country fairs, folk rituals, daily life, families, art, foods, crafts, music, dance and poetry in the Elizabethan, English Victorian and Early American periods. Ron Patterson, co-founder of the original Renaissance Pleasure Faires, initiated it in 1967. Guild volunteers are developing a resources database that will allow members and visitors to the Guild Website, guildofstgeorge.com, to make use of these resources which will include scanned images and links to related sites throughout the world.

Website
The St. George Website, guildofstgeorge.com, has been developed and is maintained by Guild volunteers. Our goal is to place resources pertaining to all developed programs online by the end of this year. With the expansion of the library program, we are excited to begin the process of creating a permanent record and online resource of important and rare works on several periods. The process of linking to universities, Shakespeare groups, and other history sites worldwide will begin as soon as the site resources begin to develop.

Guildhall and Museum
The long-term goal of the Guild of St. George is to create a permanent home for Elizabethan studies and programs that will benefit students, scholars, history buffs, and enthusiasts of the period from around the country and internationally. With a central location for events of up to 500 people, adequate space for an ever-expanding research library encompassing many periods in history and the arts, and a museum of handcrafts that will house works created by Renaissance Faire artists over the past 38 years, it is the intent of the Guild to provide an important center for the continued development of interactive Living History. Funding for the Guildhall and Museum will be developed with a capital campaign once a site has been identified. Operational funding will come from a combination of facility rentals, special events, and an endowment program.