Reports from the Professional Development Project
The Folk and Traditional Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts provided funding through May 2020 to the AFS to administer a Consultancy and Professional Development Program; projects will continue to be approved as long as funds remain.
This program provides contracts for consultancies and professional development opportunities that—in addition to any other outcomes—create case studies of issues, challenges, organizations, or events in the folk and traditional arts field, or descriptions of best practices in some area of folk and traditional arts work, that AFS shares here. (Links to the reports submitted in past years of the program are below these guidelines.)
Although the consultancy part of this program supports activities in all areas of the folk and traditional arts field, particular priority is given to consultancies focused on matters of organizational sustainability, including audience development, fund-raising and donor development, marketing, leadership and succession, partnership-building, strategic planning, and the like.
Here are links to the best-practice and case-study reports submitted during 2016-2018. Please see below on the page for reports from earlier years of this project.
- A report from Barry Dornfeld on a convening of humanities scholars, artists, folklorists, and human service and health workers to explore issues of immigration and re-settlement in western New York State
- A report from Georgia Wier on developing a community-based fieldwork program
- A report by AVPreserve’s Bert Lyons on digital preservation storage planning
- A report by Norma Cantú on a workshop on diversity and inclusion held by the Folk Arts Peer Group of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
- A report by Amber Dodge on website development and marketing
- A report by Sue Eleuterio on an advocacy workshop for the 2017 Folklorists in the South retreat
- A report by Sue Eleuterio on curriculum planning for the Center for Food and Culture
- A report by Heather Gerhart on the 2017 Folklorists in the South retreat
- A report by Lisa Mount on strategic planning for the Local Learning organization
- A report by Richard Shrake on online cataloging and content access platforms for archival collections
- A report by Shannon Smith and Amy Skillman on a feasibilty study for a Maryland State Folklife Center
- A report from the Paul J. Strawhecker firm on assessing and planning a development campaign for the Nebraska Folklife Network
- A report by Kristin Sullivan on the 2017 meeting of the Association of Western States Folklorists
- A report by Elaine Thatcher on developing support for a state folklife program in Arkansas
Consultancy and Professional Development Program
This program supports two kinds of activities:
1. Short-term consultancies by experts who work with an organization in the field to create case studies, or to identify and articulate best practices, in such areas as archiving, concert or festival production, fundraising, exhibition or publication design, field documentation, marketing and publicity, media production, or organizational development and management, among others. AFS will support up to $3,000 for the fees and travel associated with a consultancy. AFS will post consultants’ case-study or best-practice reports on its web site as a resource to the folk and traditional arts field.
Requests for this support must come to AFS from the prospective consultant. AFS will issue contracts, and provide fee and travel reimbursement payments, directly to those consultants. As part of the final report for each consultancy, the organizations that work with consultants must provide written documentation to AFS of the in-kind value of their staff or board members’ time that was devoted to work with the consultant.
2. Professional development opportunities for the staffs of folk and traditional arts non-profit organizations and government agencies, and for independent contractors engaged in folk and traditional arts work, who may travel to visit other organizations or participate in events that will help them acquire best-practice or case-study information about some aspect of their folk arts work. Videoconferencing is also possible.
AFS will support up to $2,000 for the travel and related costs associated with professional development opportunities. AFS will post the case-study or best-practice reports prepared by those undertaking professional development work on its web site as a resource to the folk and traditional arts field. As part of the final report for each professional development opportunity, the participant must provide written documentation to AFS of the in-kind value of her/his time that was devoted to the opportunity.
What We Do Not Fund: This program does not provide grants, support arts projects, or provide support for indirect costs. It also does not support professional development requests from students, or requests for travel to the AFS annual meeting. A single individual may receive only one contract (as a consultant or as a recipient of professional development support) per year, and a single organization may receive only one consultancy per year.
We will offer this support on a first-come, first-served basis until funds have been fully expended.
We generally will be able to review and make decisions on requests within 2 weeks of receiving them. We will pay out contract funds within 4 weeks of the date when we receive written case-study or best-practice reports, and financial reports, from the consultancy (and for consultancies, as mentioned above, we will also require written in-kind documentation) or professional development activity.
We encourage you to contact AFS Executive Director Jessica Turner ([email protected]) to discuss your plans before applying. To apply, email a PDF with the following information to the same address:
Consultancies
1. Evidence of your relevant qualifications as a consultant
2. A summary of the mission, and the folk arts activities of the organization you want to work with
3. A description of the purpose and impact of, and a plan of work for, the consultancy, including the case-study or best-practice report you will provide
4. A budget for the project, and a brief description of what changes you would make to the project if we cannot fully fund your request (allowable costs include those for consultant fees, transportation, lodging, and meals)
Professional Development
1. A brief summary of your professional work in folk arts
2. A description of the professional growth opportunities this travel will enable you to undertake, and of the case-study or best-practice information you plan to gain and share with the field
3. A budget for the project, and a brief description of what changes you would make to the project if we cannot fully fund your request (allowable costs include those for transportation, lodging, meals, meeting or conference registration, and videoconferencing)
Past Case-Study and Best-Practice Reports
Archiving
- A report from the Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies on assessing the present state of an archival collection and making recommendations concerning future space and conditions for these collections that meet present-day archival standards
- A report from the Institute for Community Research on methods of downloading, storing, rendering, converting, organizing, inventorying, and editing video ethnographic documentary materials
- A report by Catherine Hiebert Kerst of the American Folklife Center on findings from the September 2013 international symposium “Cultural Heritage Archives: Networks, Innovation & Collaboration”
- Josephine McRobbie’s “Applicable Models for Audiovisual Archives and Collections: Engagement with Indigenous Communities and Archival Materials”
- A case study prepared by Riley McLaughlin of VillageMediaWorks on the development of an online application that allows for the selection and playing of a specific group of archival audio and video recordings
- Andy Kolovos on preserving ethnographic research materials
Conference Reports
- A report from Michelle Stefano on the Association of Critical Heritage Studies 2014 conference
- A report from Robert Baron on the 2013 conference of the Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore, and on European heritage studies today
- A report from Michelle Stefano on the Association of Critical Heritage Studies 2012 conference
Fieldwork, Documentation, and Media Production
- A report from Georgia Wier and John Bishop on preparing video materials for archival deposit
- A guide to field recording and audio mixing by radio producer Rachel Hopkin
- “Planning and Completing Immersive Language Study: Recommendations for Folklorists Based on Work in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala,” by independent folklorist Joseph O’Connell
- A primer for folklore videographers prepared by Jon Ching, consultant to the Alliance for California Traditional Arts
- A primer on audio production for radio by Taki Telonidis of the Western Folklife Center’s media office
- A report from Ruth Olson of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin on Augmented Reality Interactive Storytelling (ARIS) as an emerging technology for mobile devices
- Georgia Wier on photographing folk art and artists
Folklore and Education
- A report from the Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions Charter School articulating best practices for a model whole-school residency that integrates folk arts across all grades and content areas
- A report from Global Student Achievement exploring best practices in folklore to expand the understanding of culture among district and charter schools that have a conservative approach to the concept of school culture
- Recommendations for local-culture pedagogy programs based on a summer 2014 meeting of Wisconsin local-culture educators
- A report from a Philadelphia Folklore Project-sponsored workshop on best practices for integrating folk arts and social change teaching
- A guide prepared by Paddy Bowman, director of Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education, for folklorists wanting to incorporate K-12 education activities into their work
- A report by Jan Rosenberg of Heritage Education Resources on using folklore as a means to meeting K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum standards
Leadership
- A report from a working meeting of Preserving America’s Cultural Traditions (PACT) to assess and implement strategies found in the 2013 PACT “Leadership, Succession, and Transition Planning” report [listed below in this section]
- A report by Carole Boughter on transition and succession planning for non-profits
- A report by Selina Morales, Mal O’Connor, and Sally Van de Water of Preserving America’s Cultural Traditions (PACT) from two AFS 2012 workshops on leadership, transition, and succession in public sector folklore
Organizational Development, Strategic Planning, and Sustainability
- A report from Eileen Condon on democratizing the folk arts workplace
- A report from the Vermont Folklife Center on developing a new internal operating structure
- A report from Melanie Beene and Robert Baron on visioning a new state folklife program
- A report from the Vermont Folklife Center on redeveloping its website
- A report from Arkansas State University on museum education and public folklore
- A report from the Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University on a series of professional development discussions of the Mathers Museum, Traditional Arts Indiana, and the Michigan State University Museum on folklore, museums, and public folklore programs
- A report from the Philadelphia Folklore Project on planning and facilitating Board retreats to carefully tend to a new staff and team
- A report from the May 2015 gathering of the Association of Western States Folklorists
- A report by Brent Björkman and Lilli Tichinin of the Kentucky Folklife Program at Western Kentucky University on an April 2014 meeting of university-based public folklore programs
- A report by Gregory Hansen of Arkansas State University on best practices in a heritage studies program
- “State Folk Arts Programs: Achievements, Challenges, Needs,” a report from a gathering of 14 state folk arts program directors and consultants (and a pre-meeting survey of a larger number of state program directors) supported by this AFS program, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and the Folk and Traditional Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts
- A report by Jill Breit on best practices for facility ownership
- A report on the Executive Board’s October 2012 meeting with academic and public programs in folklore
- A report by Liz Vibber of the Catalyst Center for Nonprofit Management on creating a nonprofit financial business model
- A report by Red Sage Communications on changing communications to create strategies for organizational sustainability
- A report from Barry Cohen on strategic planning for folklore organizations
- A report from Betsy Peterson on strategic planning
- A report from Mike Luster and Rachel Reynolds Luster on cultural sustainability
- A report from Mike Luster and Rachel Reynolds Luster on a second workshop on cultural sustainability
- A report by Mike Luster on a third cultural sustainability retreat
- A report from Mike and Rachel Reynolds Luster on a fourth cultural sustainability retreat
Public Folklore Programming and Program Development
- A report from Jeanne Harrah Johnson on studying urban vernacular architecture
- A report from Maureen Porter on the Peru program of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
- A report from Robert Forloney on the US folklife infrastructure in 2015-2016
- A report from Anne Huang on institutional fundraising
- A report from Gabrielle Berlinger, Kay Turner, and Ellen McHale on preserving vernacular architecture in New York
- A report from Esailama Artry-Diouf on African dance in America
- A report from papermaker Aimee Lee (Ohio): investigating best practices among Japanese papermaking studios that American studios can follow to find, train, and retain future papermakers
- A report from Behold! New Lebanon on documenting, studying and interpreting the traditions and innovations on traditions developed for guides at an open-air museum
- Suzy Thompson’s recommendations for putting on old-time string band contests.
- Jens Lund’s recommendations on how to use the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission’s Folk and Traditional Arts Program as a model for creating a similar program in Utah.
- A report by Lisa Overholser, Ellen McHale, Laura Marcus Green, and Amy Skillman on building an arts and culture support network for newcomer artists
- A joint report by museum consultant Kathleen McLean and folklorist Suzanne Seriff on museum exhibit prototyping
- A report by Brendan Greaves on folk festival planning for the 21st century
- A report by independent folklorists Amy Skillman and Laura Marcus Green from the Western Kentucky University “Arts of Community” workshop they led, which focused on finding ways for arts and cultural organizations to collaborate with social service providers
- Fred Fussell on preserving and interpreting folk art environments
- Andrea Graham, Annie Hatch, and Elaine Thatcher on folk festival planning
- Ellen McHale, Lisa Overholser, and Daniel Franklin Ward on cultural tourism
- Millie Rahn on presenting foodways in a folk festival setting
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