Members of the Community Scholars Program from July 2024.
The Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts Community Scholars Program is a free training opportunity for Arkansas residents interested in discovering, documenting and presenting community culture, folk life and traditional arts. The fall 2024 training, conducted in partnership with the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Folk and Traditional Arts Program, will be entirely online and open to Arkansas and Mississippi residents.
This program consists of six training sessions that take place every second Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. from September 10 to November 12. During the program, participants develop ideas for a project to put the skills learned into practice.
Participants must commit to the full training series and registration is required. Participants will acquire skills in documenting and researching culture, archiving and presenting research findings, and developing projects in collaboration with stakeholders and community organizations.
“The Community Scholars Program sessions were entertaining and informative for me in my role at the museum – especially the discussions on exhibit labeling, oral interview techniques, and digital content,” said Mary Clark, a spring 2022 graduate of the Community Scholars Program and board member of the Eddie Mae Herron Center at Pocahontas. “The lecturers were extremely knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and entertaining.”
“It is a great joy to be able to bring this program to new communities throughout Arkansas and now Mississippi,” said Virginia Siegel, Director of Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts. “This upcoming program is our 10th edition of the training series and we are excited to partner with the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Folk Arts Program. We recognize and respect that traditions and communities are often not bound by state lines, so we are excited to expand our audience while building a truly inspiring group of Community Scholars program graduates across the state of Arkansas.”
Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts is a statewide program of the University of Arkansas Libraries dedicated to building intercultural understanding through the documentation, presentation and preservation of Arkansas’s living traditional arts and cultural heritage.
About folk and traditional arts in Arkansas: AFTA is dedicated to building cross-cultural understanding through the documentation, presentation and preservation of Arkansas’s living traditional arts and cultural heritage. AFTA is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and works in partnership with advocacy organizations and individuals, including the Arkansas Arts Council, Mid-America Arts Alliance and Arkansas State University.
About the university libraries: Located in the heart of campus, the David W. Mullins Library is the university’s primary research library. Libraries’ branches include the Chemistry and Biochemistry Library, Fine Arts Library, Physics Library, and the Robert A. and Vivian Young Law Library. The libraries provide access to more than 3.1 million volumes and over 180,000 periodicals and offer research assistance, study rooms, computer labs with printing and scanning capabilities, interlibrary lending and delivery services, and cultural exhibits and events. The Libraries’ Special Collections Division acquires, preserves, and provides access to materials about Arkansas and the region, its customs and people, and its cultural, physical, and political climate. Visit the Libraries website at libraries.uark.edu to learn more about services and collections.
About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas’ flagship institution, the U of A offers an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy by imparting new knowledge and skills, fostering entrepreneurship and job development, and promoting discovery through research and creative pursuits while providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation ranks the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest research activity. US News and World Report The U of A is one of the best public universities in the country. Learn how the U of A is working to make the world a better place at Arkansas Research News.
