The Professional Folklorist & Public Programs
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Folklife specialist Mary Hufford
interviews bluegrass musician Everett Lilly during a
1996 Fourth of July celebration on Kayford Mountain, West Virginia,
for the
American Folklife Center's Coal River Folklife Project. Photo by Terry
Eiler |
Agencies, institutions, and public educational programs that need cultural
documentation hire trained professionals. Since the formation of the American
Folklore Society in 1888, folklorists have represented the scholarly discipline
which studies traditional culture whether regional, occupational, or ethnic
in nature. Folklorists also recognize and use specialists in associated
disciplines of study such as ethnomusicology, oral history, sociology,
anthropology, historic preservation, and museum studies, among others,
and have long coordinated projects that involve the general public. The
end result of many public projects that folklorists have directed have
included public exhibitions, festivals, reports and recommendations related
to urban planning, development of archives to encourage community scholarship,
preparation of school curricula, teacher training programs, and reports
on criteria necessary in the long-range development of community educational
and recreational programs.
Frequently folklorists are hired in an administrative capacity to design,
implement, and manage "folk artists in the schools" programs,
oral history projects, museum programs, and broad scale documentation projects.
If you are interested in securing the services of  a folklorist, you may
call the American Folklife Center for referral information regarding your
state folklife program as well as other federal and regional institutions
which will assist you. The Center also maintains information regarding
educational programs in folklore and the locations of folklorists teaching
in universities and colleges in all states and regions of the United States
and throughout the world.
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