Cultivating Connectivity: Folklife and Inclusive Excellence in Museums

Marsha MacDowell discussing lau hala papale (hats woven of palm leaves) with Hawaiian master artists Harriet Soong and Gladys Grace in Carriers of Culture: Native Basketry, Folklife Festival, 2006. Photo by Minnie Wabanimkee, courtesy Michigan State University Museum.

MSU Museum Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage C. Kurt Dewhurst, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Cultural Specialist and Curator Diana Baird N'Diaye, and MSU Museum Curator of Folk Arts Marsha MacDowell have joined together to write an article for Curator: The Museum Journal's latest issue. The article in entitled "Cultivating Connectivity: Folklife and Inclusive Excellence in Museums" Read the abstract below:

"Today there is a growing global awareness of the need to address issues related to the safeguarding and use of both tangible and intangible heritage. By engaging with communities in the documentation of local cultures—especially their folklife, or in other words, their traditional intangible cultural heritage—museums can create collections that will serve as foundations for museum research, exhibitions, and programs that have more resonance with and relevance for those communities. Interactions of these kinds—in particular those of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Michigan State University Museum, home of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, as well as collaborations between the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Great Lakes Folk Festival, and other programs around the world—have served as important platforms for public discourse about a variety of issues and have produced programs and exhibitions both at home and around the world."

Click here to read the full article