Juel Ulven to be inducted into Arts Hall of Fame 50 years after founding popular folk festival
Juel Ulven, founder of the Fox Valley Folklore Society, will be inducted posthumously into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame on Friday, March 27, at Eagle Brook Country Club in Geneva.
The folklore society has presented more than 4.000 folklife events to date, including Illinois’ largest all-volunteer folk music festival, the Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival; Old Time Community Barn Dances at locations throughout the area; monthly Storytelling Guild meetings and Sea Shanty sings; weekly Sing Arounds (song circles), and over 200 concerts with national and international folk artists. Learn more at FVFS.org.
“Juel Ulven was a force of nature,” noted Larry Swenson, board president of Fox Valley Folklore Society. “His passion for folk music led to this huge, multifaceted organization that touches so many folk music lovers in our area.”
Juel Ulven was born in a barn on a rural farm in Moorhead, Minnesota on Nov. 13, 1946. He joined the Navy at 17, where he attended school for radar and electronics, and discovered folk music. Ulven would hop on a bus to San Francisco from his base and listen to live music in various bars and lounges. He was deployed to the USS Nicholas-DD-449, the fastest and oldest destroyer in the fleet based at Pearl Harbor.
When he left the Navy, Juel Ulven attended college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated in 1969. From there he moved to the Chicago area to begin a 33-year career as an engineer for Bell Labs. In 1970, Ulven settled in Aurora, where he lived for most of his life before moving to North Aurora a few years before his death in 2022.
Juel Ulven founded the Fox Valley Folklore Society in 1975 to support and perpetuate folk music in the area. A year later, he started the Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival to provide a venue for that folk music to be heard.
Juel Ulven was also a large collector of folklore literature, as well as bluegrass banjos, guitars, and other folk instruments. He became passionate about restoring well-loved instruments, and spent much of his retirement years working at Cremer Guitarworks, repairing intricate inlays, replacing knobs and frets and restoring instruments to their prime. Ulven was also the president of the Aural Tradition Folk Music Society, and a founding member of The City of Lights Ukulele Society and Festival.
In September 2019, Ulven was diagnosed with stage 4 mantle cell lymphoma. Through research, he later discovered the cancer was caused by multiple exposures to Agent Orange during his time in the Navy. He documented these exposures and shared what he found with his shipmates and Navy officials.
Juel Ulven passed away on Aug. 19, 2022. The Fox Valley Folk Society continues its strong legacy through the board, which includes three founding members and Ulven’s wife, Jessi Laffey. They are planning the 50th anniversary of the festival on Labor Day 2026.
The Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame recognizes artists associated with the Fox Valley by birth, education, residence or service, who have achieved international or national acclaim.
The Class of 2026 also includes Kelly Barr, classical music; Denise Crosby, journalism; Leslie Hunt, popular and progressive music; Stanley Konopka, classical music; Mary Beth McCarthy, choral music; and Courtney Reed, theater. Susan S. Starrett will receive the inaugural Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award.
The induction banquet for the Class of 2026 is Friday, March 27, at Eagle Brook Country Club in Geneva. Tickets are $75; a portion of the proceeds will be used to promote the arts in the Fox Valley with a free event for children and the community.
For more information, email info@fvahf.org, visit the Facebook and Instagram pages, or the website at FVAHF.org.