The Reestablishment of an Arkansas State Folk Arts Program: An Assessment of Resources with Recommendations

Abstract

With the end of Arkansas State University’s support for a statewide folklife program in 2014, folklorist Elaine Thatcher was hired to do a resource assessment in Arkansas with an eye to determining the feasibility of establishing a new program with a new host institution. Thatcher spent a week traveling the state, talking to potential stakeholders and supporters. There is every likelihood that the University of Arkansas Library (located in Fayetteville) will host a new statewide folk arts/life program and that funding will be adequate to establish the program for the foreseeable future. Strong support for a new program—somewhere—was expressed by all to whom Thatcher talked, though no organization other than the University of Arkansas expressed a willingness and an ability to host such a program. This report recommends next steps and that they be undertaken as soon as possible. Steps include (1) the University of Arkansas Library (UAL) immediately beginning the process of writing a position description and identifying the support services the folklorist position would need; (2) the University making a formal statement or hosting a meeting in which the University of Arkansas Library declares its intentions and gets input from key stakeholders, i.e., the state arts council, the state humanities council, and others to be identified; (3) the UAL submitting a funding request to the National Endowment for the Arts on the next available deadline. This report also addresses opportunities and challenges facing the new program and makes suggestions for its success.