Missouri Folk Arts Program
 | |
| Established | 1984 |
|---|---|
| Location | The University of Missouri, Museum of Art and Archaeology |
| Website | Official website |
The Missouri Folk Arts Program (MFAP) is a program of the Missouri Arts Council and the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Founded in 1984, MFAP aims to bring cross-cultural understanding by documenting, sustaining, and sharing Missouri's living folk arts and folklife in collaboration with the citizens of Missouri.[1][2][3] Missouri has had a tradition of the academic study of folklore, folkways, recipes, spells, and folk music for over 100 years, beginning with the founding of the Missouri Folklore Society in 1906.[4]
History
[edit]The University of Missouri and Missouri in general have been centers for the study of American folk culture during the 20th century. Especially the folklorist Vance Randolph, who studied the Ozarks, and Henry M. Belden, who studied collected American folk songs and ballads from Missouri. In 1982 the first Cultural Heritage Center was established and directed by Howard Wight Marshall, a professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology. This program found its permanent home in 1986 at the University of Missouri’s historic Sanford F. Conley House.[5] The Center’s work consisted of multidisciplinary projects spanning rural sociology, vernacular architecture, cultural geography, historic preservation, archaeology, and folklore. Its mission and purpose were similar to MFAP’s. The program had traveling exhibits and featured smaller exhibitions in the Conley House. The Center also maintained a lending library which had a large amount of fieldwork materials. This program was decommissioned in 1993 because of budget cuts. The MFAP has overcome and adapted to shifts in funding, technology, and cultural trends since being founded in 1984.[6]
Leaders at the University of Missouri’s Museum of Arts and Archaeology worked to preserve two public folk initiatives from the Cultural Heritage Center: the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), established in 1985, and a touring program. The museum took over these programs under the newly formed MFAP.[7] The Missouri Arts Council (MAC) provided operational funding through grants, and MFAP staff continued to secure support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for TAAP. MAC also launched a Folk Arts Project Grant pilot program alongside MFAP which was successfully implemented within five years. The performing traditions program was slowly phased out as the NEA’s Folk and Traditional Arts Infrastructure Initiative in 1997 led MAC to designate MFAP as its affiliated program. MFAP was left to advance the state arts agency's objectives of folk and arts traditions.
After nearly a decade of effort to establish and stabilize the MFAP, the original staff has transitioned to new roles, and in 2000 Lisa L. Higgins, who had worked as a graduate assistant with MFAP became the Director and 'Deborah A. Bailey, who is an ethnographer, contract folklorist, and qualitative researcher, assumed the role of Folk Arts Specialist for the program. Higgins and Bailey continue to oversee the TAAP, the state arts council’s folk arts grants, and a community scholars initiative. Since 1993 the Museum staff has consistently supported MFAP, helping it grow into a vital resource for preserving and promoting Missouri’s folk and traditional arts.[8][9][10]
Activities
[edit]The Missouri Folk Arts Program has attracted national attention for its traditional arts apprenticeship program, which connects master craftspeople to students.[11] In 2023 the Missouri Folk Arts Program was involved in displaying quilts on the National Mall as chosen by the Smithsonian.[12] It is also involved with marking historic sites of folk significance in the state of Missouri.[13]
See also
[edit]- Missouri Folklore Society
- Music of Missouri
- Missouri fiddling
- Poet Laureate of Missouri
- Folk Dance
- Story telling
References
[edit]- ^ Higgins, Lisa (2016). "Missouri Folk Arts Program at the University of Missouri's Museum of Art and Archeology in Partnership with the Missouri Arts Council" (PDF). Journal of Folklore and Education. 3 (special issue): 127–136. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
- ^ Harris, Trevor (April 22, 2015). "Thinking Out Loud: Missouri's Folk Arts History". KBIA. Columbia, Missouri. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
- ^ Columbia Marketing Group, Preserving Missouri Folk Arts, COMO Magazine, 8/30/21, https://comomag.com/2021/08/30/preserving-missouris-folk-arts/
- ^ https://shsmo.org/research/guides/folk State Historical Society of Missouri Folklore and Folklife Research Guide
- ^ https://muarchives.missouri.edu/historic/buildings/conley/index.html MU Archives Historic Buildings: The Conley House
- ^ American Folklore Society, Folklore Collections Data Base, 2011, https://folklorecollections.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_id/59
- ^ https://mofolkarts.missouri.edu/traditional-arts-apprenticeship-program/
- ^ https://jfepublications.org/article/public-folklore-programs-and-university-museums/ Public Folklore Programs and University Museums
- ^ https://mofolkarts.missouri.edu/category/mo-folk-in-the-news/ Mo Folk in the News
- ^ American Folklore Society, Folklore Collections Data Base, 2011, https://folklorecollections.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_id/59
- ^ Schmidt, Claire (December 31, 2008). "Fifteen Years of the Missouri Folk Arts Graduate Internships". Retrieved December 6, 2024.
- ^ Kramer, Kirk (August 13, 2023). "Missouri quilters reflect on sharing their craft on the National Mall in Washington, D.C." Springfield News-Leader. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
- ^ Kniggendorf, Anne (September 22, 2020). "Missouri Is Chock Full Of Folklore. Roadside Markers Will Honor Some Of Its Legends". KCUR Kansas City Public Radio. Retrieved December 6, 2024.