The Missouri Folk Arts Program is excited to announce the recipients of the 2026 Missouri Living Traditions Fellowship, an award to recognize the artistic excellence and exceptional lifetime achievement of living traditional artists and community scholars in the Show Me State.
News from the Field
The Americans for the Arts Action Fund released a statement urging constituents to sign the petition to fund NEA and NEH at $213 million each for FY 2027 and to maintain NEA's 40% state arts agency formula, which will protect the percentage of funding available to local arts organizations.
The Southern Music Research Center and Whole South Heritage Works have announced that a full, free digital archive of The Old-Time Herald magazine is now live.
Our Common Life: Folksong from the Front Porch to the Concert Hall (University of Illinois Press) by Stephen Wade illuminates the truth that creative freedom within informal tradition, fundamental to the artists and their processes, speaks to a resourcefulness inscribed in America’s founding charter and expressed in its common life.
The True Texas Collection consists of photographs and oral histories taken and conducted by independent folklorist Douglas Manger. These materials are now available online through Angelo State University's digital repository.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) encourages nominations of master folk and traditional artists to recognize artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our nation's traditional arts heritage. Nominations for the 2027 class of NEA National Heritage Fellows are due May 11, 2026.
Lisa Gilman has been selected as a recipient of Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards for the 2026–27 academic year. She will participate in a bi-national program of educational exchange between the United States and Iceland and will be teaching two folklore classes at the University of Iceland.
Leela Prasad has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences among a class of 252 new members in academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research, and science.
Only Girls Bleed (Legend Times Publishing), a debut novel by AFS Past President Elaine Lawless, will be released this June and September. A special session about this book is planned for the 2026 AFS Annual Meeting.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.