Traditional leis by Marie A. McDonald of Hawai’i. McDonald has received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Photograph by Jean C. Cote. From the Masters of Traditional Arts DVD-ROM, produced by Alan Govenar and published by ABC-CLIO.

Public Folklore

Over the past 25 years or so, the part of the field of folklore we call "public folklore" has grown and developed very rapidly. By "public folklorist" we usually mean a folklorist who works primarily in arts, cultural, or educational organizations that are not colleges or universities, such as arts councils, historical societies, libraries, museums, or non-profit folk arts or folklore organizations.

Public folklorists are engaged in a variety of activities, including (but not limited to) field research and documentary work, and the production of public programs or educational materials, such as performances, artists’ residencies, exhibitions, festivals, sound recordings, radio and television programs, films, videos, and books.

At the time of this writing about half of the American Folklore Society’s members identify themselves as public folklorists. However, it’s important to remember that many folklorists work (or have worked) both in universities and in public folklore, and the two parts of the field are intimately connected. Universities, for example, are where most folklorists are trained in the ways of our field, and the public side of folklore work connects to general audiences in ways that increase appreciation for the field as a whole.

This mix of occupational home base and audiences has characterized the Society’s membership from the start. In 1888, the Society’s founding group included writers (Mark Twain was one of our founders), private men and women of learning, and museum professionals, as well as university-based scholars.

Click here to visit the AFS page for the Traditional Arts Programs Net (TAPNET), the best source for information about the activities of public folklore programs around the United States.