On Friday night, the Trump administration issued Executive Order (EO), Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, targeting the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Support campaigns to save the IMLS.
News from the Field
The Independent Folklorists section of the AFS is starting a book group. Their first meeting will be held at 9pm ET on April 8, 2025, and the first book they will be reading is Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used by Peter Block.
Emily Hilliard is a folklorist, writer, and media producer based at Berea College in Kentucky. In 2021, she received an Archie Green Fellowship to document U.S. mail carriers in Central Appalachia as part of the American Folklife Center’s Occupational Folklife Project. With insights gained from this project, Hilliard published an article on the Jacobin magazine, arguing that "USPS privatization would cost rural America more than mail."
The Philadelphia Folklore Project's archive, a cherished repository of local folk and traditional arts and grassroots activism, has been moved to the Special Collections Research Center as part of the Urban Archives at Temple University.
In 2024, MACP’s Folk Arts & Cultures program together with evaluation colleagues Wilder Research completed work to summarize nearly eight years of grantee work in an impact report. The report speaks to the many positive effects that ripple out when people and communities practice folk and traditional arts.
Congratulations to the artists and organizations who win the 2024–25 Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions fellowships and grants from the American-Scandinavian Foundation.
The National Endowment for the Humanities recently updated their notices of funding to reflect recent Presidential Executive Orders.
The National Endowment for the Arts is updating its FY 2026 grant guidelines, with deadlines in March and July 2025. These changes impact organizations applying in the Grants for Arts Projects or Challenge America categories.
Congratulations to Dr. Anna Nogar, OurStoryBridge, and Vermont Folklife, who are among the 219 awardees of the latest funding cycle of NEH grants.
Wiki Loves Folklore is an international photographic contest where the photographers can contribute media about their local folk culture to Wikimedia Commons under free licenses to be used on Wikipedia and any other places with attribution. The contest runs from February 1 through March 31, 2025. A separate Feminism and Folklore Writing Competition is held at the same time.