NEW YORK CITY – New York City has long been the place to find the best in Americana and American folk art. So many of the nation’s leading Americana dealers are concentrated in Manhattan – in open shops and in by-appointment galleries.

Now, a group of Manhattan’s top Americana and folk art dealers have joined together in a merchants association to acquaint the public with the quality, range and depth of Americana in the city. Member galleries will offer special promotions and exhibitions of fine and folky Americana, and many will offer an appreciative discount on purchases made through year’s end.

Members include the following:

American Primitive Gallery, 594 Broadway (second floor), 212-966-1530. American folk art; sculpture, paintings and handcrafted works by self-taught artists; utilitarian objects with graphic appeal; custom mountings for folk sculpture.

Laura Fisher/Antique Quilts & Americana, 1050 Second Avenue (#84) 212-838-2596. Antique quilts, hooked rugs, woven coverlets, rag carpet, Navajo weavings, ticking, Beacon blankets, needlework and historic textiles; tramp art; handmade home furnishings.

Sidney Gecker American Folk Art, 226 West 21st Street, 212-929-8769. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Americana, specializing in folk art, painted furniture, fine decorative pottery, weathervanes, chalkware, paintings and iron.

Kelter-Malce Antiques, 74 Jane Street, 212-675-7380. American folk art from the Eighteenth through the early Twentieth Century including paintings, sculpture, game boards, toys, early textiles, painted furniture.

Pantry & Hearth (Gail Lettick), 21 East 35th Street, 212-532-0535, 212-889-0026. Pilgrim, Eighteenth Century and early Nineteenth Century painted high country furniture and accessories of superior quality; folk art; early lighting; needlework and treen.

Frank J. Miele Gallery at Country Corners, 1086 Madison Avenue, 212-249-7250; 196 Columbus Avenue, 212-874-0095. Original works of art by contemporary American folk artists at Frank Miele; at Country Corners primarily handmade folk art accessories, gifts and clothing for kids.

James & Judith Milne, 506 East 74th Street (second floor), 212-472-0107. Painted country furniture, garden furniture, architectural elements, folk art including weathervanes, textiles, signs, paintings.

Susan Parrish Antiques, 390 Bleecker Street, 212-675-0454. Fine and folky antique quilts and American textiles; country furniture in original paint, Navajo weavings and Western accessories, paintings, folk art of whimsy and beauty.

Ricco/Maresca Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 212-627-4819. Magic, mystery and design in folk, self-taught and outsider art from the past and by contemporary artists.

Woodard & Greenstein, 506 East 74th Street (fifth floor), 212-988-2906. Antique quilts, painted country furniture, hooked rugs, architectural elements, decorative Americana of great visual presence, “Woodard Weave” traditional woven carpets.

These dealers are colleagues and friends whose galleries have stood the test of time. They established their businesses in New York City in recognition of its importance as the capital of the art and the folk art markets. Throughout the city’s economic shifts over the past quarter-century, these galleries flourished into influential and internationally acclaimed sources for antique Americana and folk art.

Collectively they have spurred appreciation for Americana and added to the field’s scholarship – authoring books, contributing to museum exhibitions and reference works, helping build public and personal collections, and filling homes around the world with art that captures and reflects the American spirit and heritage.