Read the NEA State of the Arts: Folk & Traditional Arts by Clifford Murphy

Read Clifford Murphy’s final state of the field blog post–his last as the director of Folk & Traditional Arts, a position he has held since 2015–on the National Endowment for the Arts website.

Our Folk and Traditional Arts team works in service of people—culture bearers and culture workers—who dedicate their creativity, skill, and agency toward the transmission and respectful understanding of living traditions. During my time here, we have set ourselves in earnest to the hard work of amplifying the priorities of culture bearers and culture workers, with an eye toward building equitable support for traditional artists and source communities. We have also mapped existing infrastructures that deliver resources to traditional arts and artists, identified gaps in those maps, and envisioned how new infrastructures might be built to serve those who are not being reached.

Clifford Murphy

Learn more about Murphy’s recent appointment to serve as director of the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, effective April 10.