Meg Glaser Retires from Western Folklife Center

Meg Glaser, the longtime program director for the Western Folklife Center and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, retired from her position on December 15, 2021 after a 37-year tenure.

In her time as program director, Glaser documented rural western life and developed programs to showcase it, including 45 exhibitions on global ranching cultures that landed in the Western Folklife Center gallery as well as in community venues and as traveling exhibitions that have been hosted all over the West and virtually. Her programs featured cattle and sheep ranching, rural life, cowboy gear, youth radio workshops, newcomer experiences, and international cultural exchange.

She returned to her hometown of Elko, Nevada in 1990 to become Western Folklife Center’s program director after putting in time at the National Endowment for the Arts, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution, and at the National Council for Traditional Arts.